'CH  0  FELLOWS, 
Col  9*1THV 


COL.  H.  B.  TITUS. 


HISTORY 


OF   THE 


NINTH     REQIMKNT 

NEW  HAMPSHIRE  VOLUNTEERS 


IN 


THE   WAE   OF   THE   EEBELLIOK 


EDITED  BY 


EDWARD   O.  LORD,  A.  M. 
M 


CONCORD,    N.   H. 
PRINTED  BY  THE  REPUBLICAN  PRESS  ASSOCIATION 


.  s 


ci 


Copyrighted  by 

WAKEFIELD,  WILCOX  &  BLAISDELL, 

Publishing  Committee, 

1895. 


TO    THE    MEMORY 

OF 

GEORGE  HENRY  CHANDLER, 

LATE  OF  CONCORD, 
ADJUTANT  AND  MAJOR 

OF   THE 

NINTH    NEW    HAMPSHIRE  VOLUNTEERS ; 

THIS  VOLUME 

is 
LOVINGLY   AND    RESPECTFULLY  DEDICATED 

BY   THE 

SURVIVORS  OF  HIS  REGIMENT. 


M198230 


COMMITTEE  ON  PUBLICATION. 


C.  D.   COPP,   Chairman. 

C.  W.  WILCOX,  Secretary.  C.   M.  BLAISDELL,  Treasurer. 

E.  C.  BABB.  J.  E.  MASON. 

J.  W.  BABBITT.  W.  P.  MOSES. 

J.  B.  COOPER.  L.  H.  PILLSBURY. 

N.  T.  DUTTON.  O.  D.  ROBINSON. 

C.  VV.  EDGERLY.  H.  B.  TITUS. 

A.  P.  HORNE.  G.  L.  WAKEFIELD. 

A.  J.  HOUGH.  S.  A.  WHITFIELD. 

SUB-COMMITTEE    ON    PRINTING. 

C.  M.  BLAISDELL,  Chairman. 
G.  L.  WAKEFIELD,  Secretary.        C.  W.  WILCOX,  Treasurer. 


CONTENTS. 


[For  "  Complete  Roster  of  Ninth  Regiment,  N.  H.  V.,11  "  Service  of 
Members  of  Ninth  Regiment  in  Other  Organizations,"  "  General  Order 
Transferring  Members  of  Ninth  Regiment  to  Sixth  N.  H.  Vet.  Volun 
teers,"  "  Register  of  Commissioned  Officers,  Ninth  Regiment,'1  "  Regi 
mental  Association,'1  "List  of  Illustrations,"  and  "General  Index," 
see  Appendix.] 

PAGE 

INTRODUCTION vii 

CHAPTER  I. 
THE  NINTH  AT  CAMP  COLBY 1-18 

CHAPTER  II. 
FROM  CONCORD  TO  SOUTH  MOUNTAIN  .    19-59 

CHAPTER  III. 

THE  BATTLE  OF  SOUTH  MOUNTAIN       .  .    60-87 

CHAPTER  IV. 

THE  BATTLE  AT  ANTIETAM  CREEK       .  88-140 

CHAPTER  V. 

FROM  ANTIETAM  TO  FREDERICKSBURG  141-180 

CHAPTER  VI. 
FREDERICKSBURG  .....  181-232 

CHAPTER  VII. 

CLOSING  UP  THE  YEAR          .         .  233-254 

CHAPTER  VIII. 

FALMOUTH,  NEWPORT  NEWS,  AND  KENTUCKY  255-281 

CHAPTER  IX. 

THE  MISSISSIPPI  CAMPAIGN  .         .         .  282-316 


vi  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  X. 
THE  MOVEMENT  FROM  KENTUCKY  TO  ANNAPOLIS, 

AND  AS  FAR  AS  BRISTOW  STATION  .          .         3 17-355 

CHAPTER  XI. 

THE    WILDERNESS    AND    SPOTTSYLVANIA    COURT 
HOUSE    .  356-402 

CHAPTER  XII. 
FROM  THE  NORTH  ANNA  TO  PETERSBURG     .         .         403-442 

CHAPTER  XIII. 
FROM    THE    INVESTURE   OF    PETERSBURG   TO   THE 

EXPLOSION  OF  THE  MINE       ....         443-481 

CHAPTER  XIV. 
THE  BATTLE  OF  THE  CRATER        ....         482-512 

CHAPTER  XV. 
SHIFTING  SCENES  AND  VARYING  FORTUNES  .         .         513-539 

CHAPTER  XVI. 
THE  DOWNFALL  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY          .         .         540-561 

CHAPTER  XVII. 

PRISONERS-OF-WAR  AT  MACON  AND  SAVANNAH, 
GEORGIA,  AND  CHARLESTON  AND  COLUMBIA, 
SOUTH  CAROLINA  .....  562-613 

CHAPTER  XVIII. 
PRISONERS-OF-WAR  IN  SALISBURY,  ANDERSONVILLE, 

FLORENCE,  AND  BELLE  ISLE  .         .         .  614-627 

CHAPTER  XIX. 
REGIMENTAL  HOSPITALS — THE  BRIGADE  BAND      .         628-654 

CHAPTER  XX. 

BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCHES       .         .         .  '  655-761 


INTRODUCTION. 


The  survivors  of  the  Ninth  New  Hampshire  volunteers  have 
experienced  unusual  difficulties  in  the  preparation  of  their  regi 
mental  history.  Soon  after  the  Rebellion  it  was  the  unanimous 
desire  that  such  a  volume  should  be  compiled  by  George  H. 
Chandler,  but  his  death,  August  12,  1883,  prevented  the  fulfil 
ment  of  this  hope.  By  that  unfortunate  event  his  comrades 
were  deprived  of  the  story  which  might  have  been  told  so  well 
by  their  former  major,  a  man  of  quick  parts  and  of  pre-eminent 
ability  in  military  and  civil  life.  They  did  not,  however,  aban 
don  the  enterprise,  and  John  E.  Mason,  first  lieutenant  of  Com 
pany  D,  was  chosen  historian  in  due  time.  He  had  made  some 
progress,  when  in  August,  1891,  Herbert  B.  Titus  was  associ 
ated  with  him;  but  Death,  intervening  a  second  time,  March  5, 
1892,  called  away  the  lieutenant,  and  left  to  the  associate  the 
accomplishment  of  the  unfinished  task. 

Comrade  Titus  had  been  colonel  of  the  regiment  during  most 
of  its  service,  and  was,  therefore,  peculiarly  qualified  to  meet 
the  added  responsibility.  He  bent  to  the  work  all  his  energies, 
including  a  remarkable  genius  for  historical  research.  Regimen 
tal,  company,  and  personal  documents  were  collected,  as  well 
as  those  general  and  special  orders  of  commanders  of  armies, 
corps,  divisions,  and  brigades,  pertaining  to  the  campaigns  in 
which  the  Ninth  participated ;  diaries,  letters,  and  monographs 
were  obtained;  there  were  meetings  of  comrades  at  various 


viii  INTRODUCTION. 

points,  at  which  questions  put  by  the  historian  and  answered 
by  one  or  more  of  the  others  present  were  reported  stenograph- 
ically — in  short,  multiform  material  was  gathered  from  every 
possible  source,  and  from  this  extracts  were  made  and  classified 
chronologically.  With  these  extracts  as  a  basis,  Colonel  Titus 
began  writing,  and  had  furnished  some  seventy  pages  of  type 
written  manuscript  when  his  health  was  found  to  be  so  im 
paired  that  a  continuation  of  the  close  application  necessary  to 
complete  the  history  might  injure  it  permanently ;  so,  in  March, 
1894,  the  responsibility  of  preparing  an  accurate  and  complete 
record  of  the  regiment  was  transferred  to  the  present  editor, 
through  whose  instrumentality  the  consummation  of  a  long 
deferred  hope  is  presented  in  the  history  now  published. 

"  The  end  crowns  the  work,"  but  this  never  would  have  been 
attained  had  it  not  been  for  the  patient  and  never-tiring  interest 
manifested  by  the  comrades  of  the  regiment.  They  have 
responded  generously  to  all  requests  of  the  publishing  commit 
tee,  and  have  volunteered  much  valuable  information.  The 
work  of  this  committee,  too,  is  remarkable.  Undismayed  by 
frequent  discouragements,  its  members  have  been  both  persist 
ent  and  prudent.  They  had  high  aims,  and  took  effective 
measures  to  attain  them.  Their  first  circular  is  an  evidence  of 
this,  and  its  exact  text  should  be  preserved.  It  reads  as  fol 
lows  : 


To  THE  COMRADES  OF  THE  NINTH  REGIMENT  OF  NEW  HAMPSHIRE 
VOLUNTEERS  : 

In  connection  with  our  Regimental  History,  now  in  course  of  prepa 
ration,  it  is  important  to  have  the  post-office  address  of  all  the  living 
members  of  the  regiment.  It  is  also  very  desirable  to  have  the  name 
and  address  of  the  widow,  child,  or  other  near  relative  or  friend,  of 
those  who  died  from  any  cause  while  in  the  service,  or  since  their 
discharge  therefrom.  With  this  object  in  view,  and  for  the  informa 
tion  of  the  comrades  of  the  regiment,  as  well  as  for  convenient  refer- 


INTRODUCTION.  ix 

ence,  the  secretary  of  the  committee  on  the  history  prepared  and 
printed  a  list,  arranged  by  companies,  of  all  those  whose  addresses  he 
had  been  able  to  ascertain  from  any  source.  Upon  consultation,  how 
ever,  with  other  members  of  the  committee,  it  was  thought  advisable, 
for  historical  purposes,  to  add  the  designation  of  rank,  and  also  to 
make  the  list  a  complete  roster  of  the  regiment,  except  deserters,  with 
the  additional  names  so  arranged  under  descriptive  headings  as  to  more 
readily  suggest,  and  aid  in  obtaining,  the  information  desired.  It  is 
therefore  requested  of  every  comrade  who  shall  receive  or  see  this  list, 
that  he  note  any  error  or  omission  in  the  name,  address,  company,  or 
classification  of  any  comrade  ;  the  death  of  any  one  not  mentioned, 
and  the  name  and  address,  if  known,  of  some  relative  or  friend  of 
those  who  died  in  the  service,  or  since  their  discharge,  who  may 
be  interested  in  the  history  of  their  soldier  lives,  or  of  the  regiment  in 
which  they  served ;  that  he  make  every  reasonable  effort  to  complete 
the  list  of  addresses,  not  only  of  the  living,  but  of  friends  of  the  dead ; 
and  that  he  communicate  the  information  or  correction  to  the  secre 
tary,  or  to  some  member  of  the  committee. 

The  committee  are  as  follows :  C.  D.  Copp,  chairman,  C.  W.  Wil- 
cox,  secretary,  C.  M.  Blaisdell,  treasurer,  J.  B.  Cooper,  J.  W.  Bab 
bitt,  A.  J.  Hough,  William  P.  Moses,  O.  D.  Robinson,  Leonard  H. 
Pillsbury,  A.  P.  Home,  E.  C.  Babb,  S.  A.  Whitfield,  C.  W.  Edg- 
erly,  H.  B.  Titus,  and  J.  E.  Mason,  secretary  of  the  regimental  asso 
ciation.  [George  L.  Wakefield  and  Newell  T.  Button  were  added  to 
the  committee  later.] 

In  thus  printing  and  giving  out  this  roster  the  committee  have 
another  object  in  view.  It  is  their  earnest  desire  to  present  a  full  and 
truthful  history  of  the  regiment,  and  in  a  manner  that  shall  be  worthy 
of  the  men  who  made  it,  but  the  material  and  data  which  they  have  so 
far  been  able  to  collect  they  find  to  be  entirely  insufficient  for  the  pur 
pose.  They  are  not  satisfied  merely  to  give  a  general  statement  of  the 
formation  of  the  regiment,  its  marches,  its  camps,  its  bivouacs,  and 
its  battles,  with  the  number  and  names  of  the  killed,  wounded,  and 
missing,  and  such  facts  and  incidents  as  may  be  within  their  own  per 
sonal  knowledge  and  recollection.  The  true  history  of  a  regiment  is 
the  sum  of  hundreds  of  individual  histories,  each  of  which  is  the  story 
and  the  sum  of  the  scenes,  incidents,  and  experiences  of  one  soldier's 
daily  life.  What  the  committee  need,  to  complete  the  history,  are  the 
stories  of  the  men  who  made  that  history, — what  they  themselves  saw 
and  thought  and  did,  as  they  now  remember  and  tell  it,  and  particu 
larly  as  they  then  wrote  it  in  letters  home,  for,  as  a  rule,  what  the 


x  INTKODUCTION. 

soldier  wrote  in  his  letters  is  of  as  much,  or  even  more,  value  for  the 
purposes  of  history,  than  what  he  wrote  in  a  diary. 

It  is  intended  that  for  this  regiment  the  coming  reunion  at  Wei 
shall  be,  as  far   as  practicable,  a  working  week.     There  are  errors, 
omissions,  and  discrepancies  in  the  regimental  records  to  be  correct 
and  straightened  out  for  a  complete  and  accurate  final  roster, 
committee  will  meet  there  previous  to  the  reunion,  and  remain  as  Ic 
as  may  be  necessary.     They  will  have  a  stenographer  to  note  down 
facts,  scenes,  and  incidents  which   go  to  make  up  our  regimental   his 
tory,  as  comrades  may  relate  them.     So  come  to  the  reunion;   come 
early,  and  prepared,  if  need  be,  to  stay  late.     Brighten  up  your  rec 
lection,  and  bring  your  old  army  letters  and  diaries  if  you  have  them, 
and  those  of  any  other  comrade  who  cannot  be  present,  and  so  now 
help  to  record  the  history  which  you  once  helped  to  make.     If  then  it 
is  not  fully  and  truthfully  recorded  the  fault  will  not  lie  with  those  who 
have  undertaken  the  laborious  task. 

While  it  is  expected  that  every  officer  of  the  regiment  now  living, 
and  the  friends  of  those  who  are  dead,  will  furnish  a  photograph  for  a 
picture  to  be  inserted  in  the  history,  this  privilege  is  by  no  means  con 
fined  to  the  officers,  but  is  extended  equally  to  all,  irrespective  of 
rank.  Specimens  of  different  styles  can  be  seen  at  the  reunion,  c 
information  will  be  furnished  on  request. 

CHARLES  W.   WILCOX, 

Secretary  Committee  on  History. 
Milford,  Mass.,  July  25,  1891. 

Accompanying  the  above  circular  was  the  roster  referred  to 
therein.  Other  supplementary  circulars  were  sent  out  as  re 
quired. 

The  general  committee  named  in  the  circular  confined  its 
efforts  to  obtaining  the  material  and  supervising  the  compila 
tion  of  the  history.  The  numberless  details  of  printing  and  pub 
lishing  were  entrusted  to  a  sub-committee  plenipotentiary,  con 
sisting  of  C.  M.  Blaisdell,  chairman,  G.  L.  Wakefield,  secretary, 
and  C.  W.  Wilcox,  treasurer.  A  special  committee  on  the 
revision  of  the  editor's  manuscript  was  appointed  in  June,  1894. 
Its  members  were  H.  B.  Titus,  O.  D.  Robinson,  N.  T.  Button, 


INTR  OD  UC  TION.  xi 

C.  D.  Copp,  W.  P.  Moses,  on  the  part  of  the  regiment,  and 
A.  D.  Ayling,  adjutant-general,  on  the  part  of  the  state. 

Each  member  of  each  one  of  these  committees  performed  his 
duties  faithfully,  and  to  the  satisfaction  of  all  concerned,  but 
thanks  are  particularly  due,  and  are  hereby  given,  to  Gen.  A.  D. 
Ayling,  for  his  careful  reading  of  the  manuscript  history,  and  for 
his  pertinent  suggestions  relating  thereto.  Special  acknowledg 
ments  should  also  be  made  to  O.  D.  Robinson,  who  generously 
placed  at  the  disposal  of  the  publishing  committee  an  invalu 
able  collection  of  manuscripts  and  prints,  including  many  of  his 
own  contributions  to  the  newspaper  literature  of  the  Civil  Wai- 
period,  as  well  as  the  orations  and  other  scholarly  efforts  of  his 
later  years  referring  to  the  same  period,  from  which  collection 
the  editor  has  made  selections  without  stint ;  to  F.  J.  Burnham 
for  a  monograph  of  his  adventures,  compiled  from  his  diaries 
and  private  letters;  to  N.  T.  Button  for  his  careful  comparison 
of  the  narrative  with  his  very  complete  diaries ;  to  the  letters 
and  diaries  of  G.  H.  Chandler,  C.  W.  Wilcox,  J.  W.  Lathe,  Orville 
Smith,  S.  J.  Alexander,  C.  D.  Copp,  W.  I.  Brown,  W.  P.  Moses, 
and  others,  whence  many  of  the  descriptions  of  scenes  and 
incidents  have  been  derived ;  to  many  comrades  for  their  writ 
ten  anecdotes ;  to  C.  W.  Wilcox,  Wm.  McGarrett,  A.  P.  Hprne, 
and  J.  F.  Foster,  for  their  contributions  relating  to  Confederate 
prisons  ;  to  J.  B.  Bailey  for  his  narration  of  the  experiences 
of  the  regimental  band;  to  United  States  Senator  Wm.  E.  Chand 
ler  for  copies  of  war  department  documents,  and  for  many 
other  services  rendered,  and  to  Vice-President  Wm.  D.  Chand 
ler  and  Business  Manager  E.  N.  Pearson  of  the  Republican 
Press  Association  for  their  uniform  kindness  and  courtesy  dur 
ing  the  process  of  printing. 

To  Messrs.  Blaisdell,  Wakefield,  and  Wilcox,  of  the  sub-com 
mittee  on  printing  and  publishing ;  to  Rev.  N.  T.  Button,  of 


xii  INTRODUCTION. 

Fairfield,  Me.;  to  Hon.  E.  C.  Babb,  of  Minneapolis,  Minn.  ;  to 
Albert  P.  Davis,  of  Concord;  to  the  Rev.  E.  M.  Gushee,  of 
Cambridge,  Mass.,  and  to  others,  who  though  nameless  here 
are  not  forgotten,  the  editor  tenders  his  sincere  thanks  for  prof 
itable  suggestions  and  friendly  criticisms. 

EDWAR!)  O.  LORD. 
Concord,  N.  H.,  October  10,  1895. 


HISTORY 


OF    THE 


NINTH  REGIMENT  NEW  HAMPSHIRE 
VOLUNTEERS. 


CHAPTER   I. 
THE  NINTH  AT  CAMP  COLBY. 

"At  length  we  are  in  peace,  God  be  praised!  and 
long,  very  long  may  it  last.  All  wars  are  follies — very 
expensive  and  very  mischievous  ones."  Thus  wrote  the 
Philadelphia  sage,  at  the  close  of  the  Revolutionary 
War,  and  looking  back  over  the  Civil  War,  who  but 
will  echo  his  sentiments?  The  war  was;  and  when  the 
descendants  of  those  who  participated  in  its  triumphs  and 
its  defeats,  its  joys  and  its  sorrows,  shall  ask  why  and 
for  what  this  war  was  waged,  it  is  to  the  history  of  those 
stirring  times  that  they  will  turn  in  their  search  for  infor 
mation  regarding  what  that  peace-loving  Quaker,  John 
Bright,  described  as  the  only  righteous  war  of  modern 
times.  It  must  needs  be  a  righteous  cause  that  would 
justify  the  arraying  of  brother  against  brother  in  deadly 
strife  !  Side  by  side  the  North  and  the  South  had  fought 
to  secure  and  maintain  the  independence  of  the  United 
States,  but  from  1861  to  1865  they  were  in  fierce  conflict 
one  with  the  other ;  and  for  what  cause  ? 

Forgetting  that 

"  The  love  of  liberty  with  life  is  given," 


2  NIN  TH  NE  W  HA  M PS  HIRE.  [  1 86 1 . 

the  South  was  holding  in  the  bonds  of  slavery,  with  all 
its  attendant  evils,  more  than  4,000,000  people,  denying 
to  them,  because  God  had  seen  fit  to  create  them  black 
instead  of  white,  that  liberty  wrhich  is  dearer  than  life 
itself.  This  growing  evil  of  slavery,  which  threatened 
to  spread  its  serpent  trail  over  all  the  land,  was  the  real 
source  of  the  trouble  between  the  North  and  the  South  ; 
but  the  events  which  precipitated  the  war  itself,  were 
the  secession  of  the  Southern  states  and  the  bombard 
ment  of  Fort  Sumter. 

As  suddenly,  as  swiftly,  and  as  terribly  as  the  cyclone 
sweeps  over  the  smiling  country,  leaving  death  and  deso 
lation  behind,  did  this  open  rebellion  and  its  consequences 
come  upon  the  nation.  Though  for  years  warnings  had 
been  sounded  from  pulpit  and  platform  and  press,  still 
the  people  refused  to  believe.  War  had  become  to 
them  but  a  name.  That  it  could  become  a  reality,  and 
in  their  midst,  seemed  impossible.  The  booming  of 
cannon  and  the  crash  of  the  falling  walls  of  Sumter 
brought  a  fearful  awakening.  The  emergency  was  great, 
and  must  be  promptly  and  wisely  met ;  the  Union  must 
be  preserved  ; — but  no  one  even  dreamed  how  terrible  a 
sacrifice  of  precious  human  lives  was  to  be  laid  on  the 
country's  altar  in  expiation  for  the  injustice  done  the 
African  negro. 

To  whom  could  the  country  look  in  her  hour  of  peril? 
Whose  hand  could  guide  the  ship  of  state  through  the 
treacherous  shoals  of  treason  and  internecine  hatred? 
Fortunate  was  it  that  the  administration  had  passed  into 
the  hands  of  one  who  was  able  and  willing  to  do  his 
duty,  even  to  his  last  breath  ;  whose  shoulders  would  not 
shrink  from  the  Herculean  task  imposed  upon  them, — 
the  revered  and  martyred  Abraham  Lincoln.  His  elec- 


i86i.]  AT  CAMP  COLBY.  3 

tion  had  been  looked  upon  by  the  Southerners  as  mark 
ing  the  limit  of  their  forbearance  ;  they  fully  understood 
that  with  him  there  would  be  no  winking  at  doubtful 
proceedings,  and  from  secret  plotting  they  advanced  to 
open  rebellion.  And  in  a  way  there  was  reason  for 
their  madness.  In  his  last  annual  message  President 
Buchanan,  after  stating  the  causes  the  South  had  for  ill- 
feeling  against  the  North  and  for  demanding  the  repeal 
of  the  Personal  Liberty  acts,  said, — 

44  The  Southern  states,  standing  on  the  basis  of  the 
Constitution,  have  a  right  to  demand  this  act  of  justice 
from  the  North.  Should  it  be  refused,  then  the  Consti 
tution,  to  which  all  the  states  are  parties,  will  have  been 
wilfully  violated  by  one  portion  of  them  in  a  provision 
essential  to  the  domestic  security  and  happiness  of  the 
remainder.  In  that  event,  the  injured  states,  after  hav 
ing  first  used  all  peaceful  and  constitutional  means  to 
obtain  redress,  would  be  justified  in  revolutionary  resist- 
ance" 

Such  words  as  these,  from  the  highest  executive  in  the 
land,  were  like  fire  to  the  torch.  Such  was  the  crowning 
act  of  the  Buchanan  administration.  Says  the  Comte  de 
Paris, — 

"The  end  of  his  [President  Buchanan's]  administra 
tion  had  been  disastrous.  He  had  tolerated  everything  : 
he  had  done  nothing  to  crush  out  the  Rebellion  in  its 
inception,  and  had  left  his  successor  without  the  means 
of  fulfilling  the  task  entrusted  to  him.  He  delivered  into 
his  hands  the  government  of  a  shattered  country  ;  and  if 
civil  war  had  not  yet  drenched  America  in  blood,  it  was 
simply  because  the  Rebellion  was  being  organized  with 
impunity  on  its  soil." 

It  was  under  these  hampering  conditions  that  President 


4  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [1861 

Lincoln  entered  upon  his  life  work.  That  he  overcame 
those  conditions  and  nobly  fulfilled  his  trust,  a  grateful 
country  can  never  forget.  His  memory  is  enshrined  in 
the  hearts  of  the  people. 

The  history  of  those  four  years  of  fire  and  blood  has 
been  told  again  and  again,  and  from  as  many  stand 
points  ;  and  yet  we  can  never  know  it  all — those  personal 
incidents,  so  numerous  and  so  interesting,  but  so  few  of 
which  have  been  preserved ;  so  worthy  to  be  recorded, 
"  if  only  they  could  be  recovered  from  the  storehouse  of 
memory  ; "  while  down  in  the  sunny  Southland  lie  thou 
sands  of  heroes,  the  story  of  whose  sufferings  is  buried 
with  them. 

The  war  was  full  of  dramatic  incidents — every  war  is, — 
and  from  the  time  when  the  universal  thrill  of  awakened 
patriotism  went  through  all  the  land  to  the  smallest  ham 
let  and  remotest  farm,  when  war  meetings  were  held 
in  town  halls  and  village  churches  and  district  school- 
houses,  when  there  was  a  great  uprising,  as  of  one  man, 
for  the  defence  of  the  Union,  and  the  troops  marched 
away ; — all  through  those  four  long  years,  when  the 
wearisome  waiting  for  news  from  camp  and  field  and 
hospital,  their  hopes  and  fears,  joys  and  sorrows,  kept 
the  whole  people  tense,  eager,  and  expectant,  to  the 
days  when  the  veterans  brought  home  their  tattered  and 
battle-stained  flags  with  high  and  honorable  pride,  tem 
pered  with  sadness  when  they  remembered  those  who 
were  left  behind,  and  were  mustered  out,  there  were 
lights  and  shadows  visible  only  to  those  who  shared  the 
daily  life  of  the  soldier,  pathetic  bits  of  human  nature 
real  only  to  those  who  enacted  the  scenes.  Great  his 
tories  of  the  war  cannot  deal  with  these  details,  yet  to  the 
soldier  and  his  friends  there  is  nothing  so  interesting  as 


i86i.]  AT  CAMP  COLBY.  5 

the  portrayal  of  the  events  in  which  he  bore  a  part,  or  a 
sketch  of  life  in  camp  or  field  which  he  recognizes  as 
a  bit  of  his  own  experience. 

The  history  of  the  Ninth  New  Hampshire  volunteers 
is  only  one  of  hundreds,  and  yet  with  loving  care  would 
we  gather  up  and  preserve  for  coming  generations  every 
detail  of  the  story  of  those  four  years  of  sacrifice.  Organ 
ized  at  a  period  when  the  first  wave  of  enthusiasm  had 
subsided,  when  there  was  little  or  nothing  except  love  of 
country  to  induce  enlistment,  and  when  there  was  plenty 
of  work  at  good  wages,  a  better  class  of  men  than  entered 
the  ranks  of  the  Ninth  at  that  period  of  its  history  would 
be  hard  to  find.  They  were  largely  sons  of  farmers, 
and  mechanics  from  the  rural  towns  and  cities,  students 
who  had  laid  aside  the  pen  for  the  sword, — young 
men  who  would  do  honor  to  their  native  state  either  on 
the  battle-field  or  in  the  peaceful  pursuits  of  home  life  ; 
men  of  whom  it  was  said  after  their  second  battle — on 
the  bloody  field  of  Antietam — "  they  behaved  admirably, 
more  like  veteran  soldiers  than  inexperienced  recruits." 
They  were  the  men  who  brought  home  colors  that  were 
torn  and  stained,  and  who  could  point  proudly  to  the 
inscriptions  which  told  of  the  fields  on  which  they  had 
wron  their  honors.  They  entered  the  ranks  as  inexpe 
rienced  men  :  they  came  home  veteran  soldiers,  the  kind 
of  whom  it  has  been  well  said, — 

"  How  is  a  soldier  made?  Whence  comes  the  soldier 
of  a  man?  A  lad  taken  out  of  your  street,  dressed  in  a 
soldier's  uniform,  fed  on  a  soldier's  rations,  carrying  a 
soldier's  weapon,  and  marching  to  a  soldier's  music,  is 
not  a  soldier ;  he  is  only  a  lad  clothed,  fed,  armed,  and 
marched  like  a  soldier.  But  the  soldier  in  a  man  is  gen 
erated  by  fiercer  processes :  it  is  worried  in  by  long 


6  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [June, 

marches,  it  is  pressed  in  by  long  watches  on  the  picket 
line,  it  is  filtered  in  by  the  dews  of  night,  it  is  washed  in 
by  the  rains  of  heaven,  it  is  starved  in  by  half  a  biscuit 
a  day,  it  is  baked  in  by  the  fever  in  the  hospital  cot,  it  is 
blown  in  by  shot  and  shell,  it  is  thrust  in  by  sabre  and 
bayonet — that  is  where  the  soldier  comes  from." 

The  Ninth  regiment  was  the  first  one  organized  and 
sent  to  the  front  in  1862,  the  Seventh  and  Eighth  having 
been  mustered  in  during  the  latter  part  of  December, 
1861,  and  of  January,  1862.  It  was  in  May  that  an 
order  for  an  additional  regiment  of  infantry  was  received 
from  the  war  department,  and  recruiting  officers  were  at 
once  set  at  work.  Through  their  persevering  efforts  a 
sufficient  number  to  form  the  nucleus  for  a  regiment 
arrived  at  Concord,  the  rendezvous  appointed  by  the 
governor,  during  the  latter  part  of  June.  The  larger 
portion  of  the  regiment  was  enlisted  in  July,  and  on  the 
23d  of  August  the  organization  was  completed,  the  regi 
ment  numbering  975  men  besides  the  commissioned 
officers. 

"  No  person  will  be  commissioned  excepting  those  who 
actually  labor  in  recruiting  and  forwarding  the  organiza 
tion  of  the  regiment.  There  are  no  sinecure  offices  to 
be  dispensed  in  this  regiment." 

Such  was  the  general  order  issued  by  the  governor  on 
June  27,  and  those  who  held  officers'  commissions  in  the 
Ninth  did  yeoman  service  for  them.  Some  had  been 
in  the  three-months  regiments,  and  thus  were  valuable 
aids  in  "  breaking  in"  recruits;  others  had  "  taken  the 
stump"  in  the  towns  and  villages,  and  so  persuasive 
had  been  their  silvery  eloquence  that,  as  one  poor  fellow 
pathetically  remarked,  when  asked  why  he  had  enlisted, 
"  I  jest  couldn't  help  it,  he  talked  so  to  us."  But  they 


i862.j  AT  CAMP  COLBY.  7 

were  good  men  and  true, — all  of  them, — and  were  both 
loved  and  respected  by  the  soldiers  whom  they  com 
manded. 

Up  to  the  middle  of  June  the  camp  was  under  the 
command  of  Josiah  Stevens,  Jr.,  of  Concord.  The  com 
mission  of  colonel  had  been  tendered  to  Enoch  Q^  Fel 
lows,  of  Sandwich,  an  officer  who  had  so  distinguished 
himself  in  his  command  of  the  Third  New  Hampshire, 
that  he  had  been  recommended  to  President  Lincoln  for 
appointment  as  brigadier-general,  by  the  governor  and 
council.  But  the  new  regiment  was  to  be  organized 
and  equipped,  and  Colonel  Fellows  was  just  the  man 
needed  for  the  work.  He  had  been  educated  at  West 
Point,  and  men  who  knew  the  rudiments  of  tactics  and 
could  drill  a  company  or  regiment  were  scarce  in  those 
days  ;  so  there  was  great  rejoicing  in  camp  when  it  was 
announced  that  Colonel  Fellows  had  accepted  the  com 
mission  and  would  at  once  assume  command,  which  he 
did  on  June  14. 

Then  the  camp  settled  down  to  solid  work,  for  the 
men  soon  learned  that  soldiering  and  drilling  under  a 
hot  July  sun  was  anything  but  play.  But  the  transform 
ing  of  an  awkward  boy  into  a  soldier  was  often  a  trying 
process,  both  to  officer  and  recruit.  How  humiliating 
to  be  relegated  to  the  "awkward  squad ;"  to  be  made 
to  turn  to  the  right,  the  left;  face  this  way,  that  way ; 
dress  up,  align,  and  touch  elbows ;  keep  your  eyes  front 
and  your  heels  together;  move  forward,  sidewise,  back 
ward,  and  oblique  ;  turn  about,  wheel  about — till  you 
felt  as  if  you  were  inside  out — over  and  over  again  !  and 
by  and  by,  when  you  could  do  it  all  in  "  double-quick" 
time,  you  were  sent  back  to  your  own  company — to 
laugh  at  the  evolution  of  other  "  greenies."  However, 


8  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [July 

Colonel  Fellows  had  good  material  to  work  on,  and 
though  the  discipline  at  times  could  not  fail  to  be  irk 
some,  yet  the  men  generally  took  it  in  good  part,  learn 
ing  in  their  subsequent  career  the  value  of  the  thorough 
drill  they  received  at  Camp  Colby,  and  that  the  drilling 
under  the  hot  sun  there  was  an  excellent  preparation  for 
the  scorching  heat  in  which  they  would  march  for  many 
a  weary  mile  before  they  saw  their  homes  again. 

Tender  memories  cluster  around  even  these  first  days 
of  soldier  life,  and  the  following  incident,  so  touching  in 
its  very  simplicity,  will  bring  back  to  many  a  gray-haired 
man  to-day  the  remembrance  of  his  first  night  in  the 
crowded  tents,  and  how  few  there  were  who  had  the 
courage  to  so  bravely  yet  modestly  declare  their  alle 
giance  to  the  great  Captain  as  did  the  hero  of  this  little 
sketch,  Frank  J.  Leverett  of  Company  I. 

MY   TENT-MATE. 
By  William  H.  Rand. 

"  Lights  out !     Lights  out !" 

It  was  the  martial  voice  of  Sergeant  Wilcox,  making 
his  way  among  the  tents  of  Company  I,  to  acquaint  the 
raw  recruits  with  the  import  of  the  signal  known  as 
"taps." 

4 'Lights  out!" 

The  voice  and  the  footsteps  grew  more  and  more  dis 
tinct,  and  then  slowly  receded,  leaving  us  to  darkness 
and  our  own  reflections.  This  was  our  first  night  in  camp, 
and  we  were  for  the  most  part  strangers  to  each  other, 
though  huddled  together  in  tents  of  the  Sibley  pattern, 
each  large  enough  to  shelter  a  score  of  men.  There 
was  one  of  our  number,  however,  a  slender,  blue-eyed 
boy,  whom  I  had  known  from  childhood.  His  name 


i862.]  AT  CAMP  COLBY.  9 

was  Frank.  He  was  one  of  those  manly,  resolute  fel 
lows  who  so  habitually  do  the  right  thing  so  naturally 
and  so  easily  that  it  always  seems  as  if  with  them  there 
is  no  alternative. 

With  the  extinction  of  the  lights  the  hum  of  conversa 
tion  had  ceased  in  our  tent,  but  presently  the  silence  was 
broken  by  a  clear,  unfaltering  voice:  "Boys,  I  always 
pray  before  I  go  to  sleep ;  and  if  there  is  no  objection, 
I  '11  do  so  now."  Then  followed  a  prayer  committing 
home  and  friends  and  all  our  dearest  interests  to  the 
keeping  of  the  one  strong  Hand  and  loving  Heart  that 
rule  the  world.  Devoid  of  self-consciousness  as  Frank 
was  in  this  act  of  devotion,  you  may  be  sure  that  the 
moral  courage  which  prompted  him  to  do  it,  amid  such 
surroundings,  did  not  fail  of  recognition  among  his 
comrades. 

In  after  days,  when,  on  the  toilsome  march,  they  saw 
Frank's  mud-splashed  figure  plodding  patiently  at  their 
side ;  or  when,  in  the  dread  shock  of  battle,  they  beheld 
that  youthful  visage  begrimed  with  dust  and  powder, 
memory  recalled  their  first  night  in  the  far-off  camp  at 
Concord.  "The  boy  that  prayed"  was  transfigured 
before  them,  and  under  his  smoke-stained  features  and 
dusty  blouse  they  discerned  a  soul  of  kinship  with  the 
martyrs  and  the  saints  of  old. 

Though  scathless  in  fight,  Frank  fell  at  last  a  victim 
of  disease,  and  it  was  my  lot  to  accompany  his  sorrow 
ing  mother  on  the  homeward  journey  with  the  body  of 
her  heroic  son.  In  an  awkward  attempt  at  consolation, 
as  the  train  bore  us  swiftly  along,  I  gave  my  testimony 
to  Frank's  noble  character  and  conduct  throughout  his 
army  life.  At  the  end  of  my  recital,  this  Spartan — no, 
this  Christian — mother  answered  with  a  smile,  "  My  boy 


10  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [July, 

is  safe  with  One  whom  he  always  loved  and  served 
wherever  he  might  be.  I  shall  see  him  again  one  day, 
for  I  know  that  all  is  well  with  him.  " 

The  regiment  was  armed  with  Windsor  rifles  with 
sword  bayonets, — then  a  novelty, — and  the  recruits  were 
very  proud  of  them.  At  dress  parade  the  appearance  of 
the  regiment  was  excellent,  and  its  evolutions  were  wit 
nessed  by  crowds  of  people. 

Josiah  Stevens,  Jr.,  of  Concord,  had  been  commis 
sioned  lieutenant-colonel,  but,  as  he  had  resigned,  the 
commission  was  given  to  Herbert  B.  Titus,  of  Chester 
field,  who  was  then  acting  as  major.  Lieutenant-Colonel 
Titus  had  served  as  second,  and  again  as  first,  lieutenant 
of  Company  A,  Second  New  Hampshire  volunteers,  and 
on  detached  service  as  a  signal  officer,  and  had  received 
his  commission  as  major  of  the  Ninth  in  June,  1862. 
He  was  promoted  to  the  lieutenant-colonelcy  August  26, 
and  George  W.  Everett,  of  New  London,  was  commis 
sioned  major.  Major  Everett  did  not  leave  the  state 
with  the  regiment,  on  account  of  illness,  but  joined  it 
before  the  Battle  of  Fredericksburg  in  December. 

George  H.  Chandler,  of  Concord,  received  the  com 
mission  of  adjutant,  and  well  deserved  the  position.  His 
zeal,  ability,  and  industry  were  of  great  service  in  the 
organizing  and  equipping  of  the  regiment,  and  proved, 
as  did  his  subsequent  work  in  the  field,  that  he  was  the 
right  man  in  the  right  place. 

The  roster  of  the  companies  speaks  well  for  the  energy 
of  the  recruiting  officers,  for  it  shows  that  the  men  came 
from  nearly  all  parts  of  the  state.  Company  A  was  largely 
recruited  from  Rockingham  county  ;  Company  B,  from 
Hillsborough  ;  Company  C  came  in  about  equal  proper- 


i862.]  AT  CAMP  COLBY.  II 

tions  from  Hillsborough  and  Strafford  counties  ;  Company 
D,  from  Strafford  ;  Company  E,  from  Sullivan  ;  Compa 
nies  F  and  G  are  largely  credited  to  Sullivan  county, 
though  Somersworth  and  Manchester  were  well  repre 
sented  in  Company  F ;  Company  H  had  a  large  quota 
of  Rochester  men  ;  Company  I  was  recruited  mostly  from 
Cheshire  county,  all  the  officers  and  more  than  one  third 
of  the  enlisted  men  being  residents  of  Keene,  and  all 
making  a  good  record,  while  it  is  doubtful  if  there  is 
another  company  in  the  state  so  largely  represented 
to-day  by  members  living  in  the  same  town  or  city  from 
which  they  enlisted  ;  the  major  part  of  the  members  of 
Company  K  enlisted  from  the  town  of  Newport  in  Sulli 
van  county. 

The  month  of  August,  1862,  was  a  disastrous  one  for 
the  Northern  army,  and  there  came  an  urgent  call  for 
more  troops  in  the  field ;  for  the  steady  progress  of  Lee's 
army  northward,  and  his  threat  to  capture  Washington 
and  Baltimore  and  provision  his  troops  from  the  fertile 
Pennsylvania  valleys,  had  aroused  the  entire  North. 
When  the  Ninth  regiment  was  fully  equipped  for  service 
the  following  order  was  received : 

STATE  OF  NEW  HAMPSHIRE, 
[L.  s.]  ADJUTANT-GENERAL'S  OFFICE, 

CONCORD,  August  22,  1862. 
GENERAL  ORDER. 

To  ENOCH  Q.  FELLOWS,  ESQ., 

Colonel  Commanding  gth  Regiment  N.  H.  Volunteers  : 

SIR  :  You  will  proceed  with  the  regiment  under  your  command  on  Mon 
day  morning,  the  25th  inst.,  at  7  o'clock  a.  m,,  to  Washington,  D.  C., 
— by  way  of  Nashua,  Worcester,  and  Providence,  and  report  to  Major- 

Gen'l  Halleck— 

By  order  of  the  Governor, 

ANTHONY  COLBY,  Ad  ft- Gen' I. 


12  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [August, 

This  was  the  final  order  received  from  any  state 
authority,  the  regiment  being  mustered  into  the  United 
States  service,  at  Concord,  by  Col.  Seth  Eastman, 
U.  S.  A.  The  next  day  the  following  complete  roster 
of  the  field  and  staff,  and  of  each  company,  was 
announced : 

HEADQUARTERS  NINTH  REGIMENT 

NEW  HAMPSHIRE  VOLUNTEERS, 
CAMP  COLBY,  CONCORD,  August  23,  1862. 
GENERAL  ORDERS 

No.  6. 

This  regiment  is  known  as  the  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE  REGIMENT 
OF  VOLUNTEERS.  The  field  officers  are, — 

Colonel,  Enoch  Q.  Fellows ;  lieutenant-colonel,  Herbert  B.  Titus ; 
major,  George  W.  Everett. 

The  commissioned  staff  are, — 

Adjutant,  George  H.  Chandler;  quartermaster,  Carleton  B.  Hutch- 
ins;  surgeon,  William  A.  Webster;  assistant  surgeons,  John  S.  Emer 
son,  Francis  N.  Gibson;  chaplain,  Edward  M.  Gushee. 

The  non-commissioned  staff  are, — 

Sergeant-major,  Edwin  Greene;  commissary-sergeant,  Howard  M. 
Hanson ;  quartermaster-sergeant,  James  B.  Perry ;  hospital  steward, 
A.  Warner  Shepard ;  principal  musicians  of  infantry,  Sylvanus  Adams, 
Alden  B.  Bennett. 

This  regiment  is  composed  of  ten  companies,  which  are  lettered 
from  A  to  K,  in  the  order  in  which  they  were  mustered  into  the  service 
of  the  United  States. 

The  company  now  commanded  by  Captain  Pillsbury  shall  be  known 
as  Company  A. 

The  company  now  commanded  by  Captain  Alexander  shall  be  known 
as  Company  B. 

The  company  now  commanded  by  Captain  A.  S.  Edgerly  shall  be 
known  as  Company  C. 

The  company  now  commanded  by  Captain  Stevens  shall  be  known 
as  Company  D. 


i862.]  AT  CAMP  COLBY.  13 

The  company  now  commanded  by  Captain  Buswell  shall  be  known 
as  Company  E. 

The  company  now  commanded  by  Captain  Stone  shall  be  known  as 
Company  F. 

The  company  now  commanded  by  Captain  Whitfield  shall  be  known 
as  Company  G. 

The  company  now  commanded  by  Captain  C.  W.  Edgerly  shall  be 
known  as  Company  H. 

The  company  now  commanded  by  Captain  Babbitt  shall  be  known 
as  Company  I. 

The  company  now  commanded  by  Captain  Cooper  shall  be  known 
as  Company  K. 

The  commissioned  officers  of  Company  A  are, — 

Captain,  Leonard  H.  Pillsbury  ;  first  lieutenant,  William  S.  Pillsbury  ; 
second  lieutenant,  Oliver  P.  Newcomb. 

The  commissioned  officers  of  Company  B  are, — 

Captain,  S.  Judson  Alexander ;  first  lieutenant,  Willard  N.  Haradon  ; 
second  lieutenant,  T.  Melville  Chisholm. 

The  commissioned  officers  of  Company  C  are, — 

Captain,  Augustus  S.  Edgerly;  first  lieutenant,  Charles  W.  Tilton ; 
second  lieutenant,  Charles  D.  Copp. 

The  commissioned  officers  of  Company  D  are, — 

Captain,  Chester  C.  Stevens;  first  lieutenant,  Andrew  J.  Hough; 
second  lieutenant,  Albert  G.  Merrill. 

The  commissioned  officers  of  Company  E  are, — 

Captain,  Daniel  C.  Buswell;  first  lieutenant,  Asa  T.  Hutchinson ; 
second  lieutenant,  James  N.  Edminster. 

The  commissioned  officers  of  Company  F  are, — 

Captain,  Andrew  J.  Stone;  first  lieutenant,  William  P.  Moses;  sec 
ond  lieutenant,  John  E.  Mason. 

The  commissioned  officers  of  Company  G  are, — 

Captain,  Smith  A.  Whitfield ;  first  lieutenant,  Orville  Smith  ;  second 
lieutenant,  Charles  A.  Harnden. 

The  commissioned  officers  of  Company  H  are,— 

Captain,  Charles  W.  Edgerly;  first  lieutenant,  John  G.  Lewis;  sec 
ond  lieutenant,  James  Blaisdell. 


14  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [August, 

The  commissioned  officers  of  Company  I  are, — 
Captain,  John  W.  Babbitt;   first  lieutenant,  Jacob  Green;    second 
lieutenant,  Nelson  N.  Sawyer. 

The  commissioned  officers  of  Company  K  are, — 
Captain,  John  B.  Cooper;  first  lieutenant,  Ervin  T.  Case;  second 
lieutenant,  William  I.  Brown. 

The  rank  of  captains  in  this  regiment  is  as  follows  : 

Senior  captain,  Captain  Babbitt ;  second  captain,  Captain  Stevens ; 

third  captain,  Captain  Edgerly  (A.  S.)  ;  fourth  captain,  Captain  Stone  ; 

fifth   captain,    Captain    Buswell ;     sixth    captain,    Captain   Whitfield ; 

seventh  captain,  Captain  Edgerly  (C.  W.)  ;   eighth  captain,  Captain 

Pillsbury;  ninth  captain,  Captain  Alexander ;  junior  captain,  Captain 

Cooper. 

The  non-commissioned  officers  in  the  several  companies  in  this  regi 
ment  are  as  follows : 

Company  A. — First  sergeant,  Leonard  H.  Caldwell ;  second  sergeant, 
Ira  S.  Abbott;  third  sergeant,  Charles  J.  Symonds ;  fourth  sergeant, 
Scott  W.  Keyser;  fifth  sergeant,  Joseph  G.  Morrill ;  first  corporal, 
Francis  M.  Caldwell;  second  corporal,  Abraham  Sanborn ;  third  cor 
poral,  Franklin  H.  Foster;  fourth  corporal,  Morrison  Alexander;  fifth 
corporal,  Monroe  Tappan ;  sixth  corporal,  Cyrus  M.  Roberts;  seventh 
corporal,  Louis  Myers. 

Company  B. — First  sergeant,  John  Mooney  ;  second  sergeant,  Ludo  B. 
Little  ;  third  sergeant,  Warren  H.  Edmands  ;  fourth  sergeant,  Webster 
Heath;  fifth  sergeant,  William  H.  Hoyt ;  first  corporal,  Wyman  Pet- 
tingill ;  second  corporal,  George  Hodgman  ;  third  corporal,  George  W. 
Cutler;  fourth  corporal,  John  F.  Mudgett;  fifth  corporal,  George  H. 
Richardson  ;  sixth  corporal,  Joseph  G.  Woods  ;  seventh  corporal,  Aus 
tin  Tucker;  eighth  corporal,  William  F.  Clough. 

Company  C. — First  sergeant,  David  F.  Cheney;  second  sergeant, 
Wentworth  Butler;  third  sergeant,  Thomas  J.  Richards;  fourth  ser 
geant,  John  P.  Whipple ;  fifth  sergeant,  Simeon  Pierce;  first  corporal, 
Orrin  A.  Small;  second  corporal,  Peter  F.  Phelps ;  third  corporal, 
Jesse  S.  Bean;  fourth  corporal,  Samuel  R.  Eastman;  fifth  corporal, 
Barclay  C.  Buswell;  sixth  corporal,  Hiram  W.  French;  seventh  cor 
poral,  Jerome  Kelley ;  eighth  corporal,  John  Robinson. 


1862.]  AT  CAMP  COLBY.  15 

Company  D. — First  sergeant,  George  W.  Emery;  second  sergeant, 
John  Donovan;  third  sergeant,  Edwin  H.  Webster;  fourth  sergeant, 
Andrew  J.  Sanborn ;  fifth  sergeant,  Stacy  W.  Hall;  first  corporal, 
Henry  J.  Boothby  ;  second  corporal,  Thomas  Goodwin  ;  third  corporal, 
Eugene  Thurston ;  fourth  corporal,  Charles  W.  Batchelder;  fifth  cor 
poral,  George  S.  Eastman;  sixth  corporal,  Charles  Burleigh ;  seventh 
corporal,  Horace  P.  Dearborn;  eighth  corporal,  Edward  D.  Lothrop. 

Company  E. — First  sergeant,  Henry  O.  Sargent;  second  sergeant, 
N.  Warren  Pulsifer;  third  sergeant,  James  C.  Ayer;  fourth  sergeant, 
Oscar  D.  Robinson ;  fifth  sergeant,  Rodney  Perham ;  first  corporal, 
JohnW.  Robinson;  second  corporal,  Cyrus  B.  Norris ;  third  corporal, 
Jonathan  P.  Stewart ;  fourth  corporal,  Charles  C.  Stevens ;  fifth  cor 
poral,  George  B.  Tracy;  sixth  corporal,  Albert  H.  Taft ;  seventh 
corporal,  Francis  O.  Riley ;  eighth  corporal,  Elmer  Bragg. 

Company  F. — First  sergeant,  Horace  Rolfe  ;  second  sergeant,  Edward 
C.  Babb  ;  third  sergeant,  George  P.  Sylvester ;  fourth  sergeant,  Edgar  W. 
Densmore;  fifth  sergeant,  George  H.  Drew;  first  corporal,  James  W. 
Lathe;  second  corporal,  William  A.  Canfield;  third  corporal,  Oliver  H. 
Dudley;  fourth  corporal,  Charles  H.  Blaisdell ;  fifth  corporal,  George 
Gordon  ;  sixth  corporal,  Henry  M.  Tracy  ;  seventh  corporal,  Charles  M. 
Noyes ;  eighth  corporal,  Hiram  S.  Lathe. 

Company  G. — First  sergeant,  George  W.  Gove ;  second  sergeant, 
Napoleon  B.  Osgood ;  third  sergeant,  William  D.  Rice;  fourth  ser 
geant,  George  H.  Dodge;  fifth  sergeant,  James  L.  Colburn ;  first  cor 
poral,  Lorenzo  M.  Upham ;  second  corporal,  James  H.  Fersons ;  third 
corporal,  William  E.  Way;  fourth  corporal,  Edward  K.  Marsh;  fifth 
corporal,  Joseph  C.  Chapman;  sixth  corporal,  Horace  Page;  seventh 
corporal,  Varanus  Atwood ;  eighth  corporal,  Albert  B.  Cressey. 

Company  H. — First  sergeant,  H.  Baxter  Quimby;  second  sergeant, 
John  C.  Sampson;  third  sergeant,  Joseph  B.  Twombly;  fourth  ser 
geant,  Charles  E.  Blackmer;  fifth  sergeant,  John  Howe;  first  corporal, 
Frederick  Morse ;  second  corporal,  Mark  G.  Staples ;  third  corporal, 
Sylvester  Ham ;  fourth  corporal,  John  W.  Roberts ;  fifth  corporal, 
Moses  L.  Chace ;  sixth  corporal,  Moses  F.  Gray ;  seventh  corporal, 
Charles  B.  Hussey ;  eighth  corporal,  Timothy  O'Connor. 

Company  I. — First  sergeant,  Charles  W.  Wilcox;  second  sergeant, 
Braman  I.  Wilson;  third  sergeant,  Elisha  Ayers ;  fourth  sergeant, 


1 6  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [August, 

S.  Horace  Perry;  fifth  sergeant,  Samuel  W.  Fletcher;  first  corporal, 
John  B.  Buckman;  second  corporal,  William  H.  Rand;  third  cor 
poral,  Hercules  W.  Raymond ;  fourth  corporal,  George  Stearns ;  fifth 
corporal,  Henry  E.  Hubbard ;  sixth  corporal,  George  W.  McClure ; 
seventh  corporal,  Charles  H.  Knights;  eighth  corporal,  Marshall  P. 
Wood. 

Company  K. — First  sergeant,  Benjamin  R.  Allen;  second  sergeant, 
Charles  H.  Little;  third  sergeant,  Gilman  Leavitt ;  fourth  sergeant, 
William  M.  George;  fifth  sergeant,  Daniel  W.  Howe;  first  corporal, 
Charles  A.  Wood;  second  corporal,  Edwin  R.  Miller;  third  corporal, 
Sylvester  Spaulding ;  fourth  corporal,  Joel  S.  Blood;  fifth  corporal, 
Prentiss  C.  Hutchinson ;  sixth  corporal,  Eli  A.  Huntoon ;  seventh 
corporal,  Henry  Tompkins ;  eighth  corporal,  Edward  C.  Kelsey. 

The  position  of  the  several  companies  in  this  regiment  in  order  of 
battle  will  be  according  to  the  rank  of  captains,  and  is  as  follows : 

Company  I,  the  first  company,  upon  the  right ;  Company  G,  the 
second  company ;  Company  F,  the  third  company ;  Company  B,  the 
fourth  company ;  Company  C,  the  fifth  company  ;  Company  A,  the  sixth 
company;  Company  E,  the  seventh  company;  Company  K,  the  eighth 
company;  Company  H,  the  ninth  company;  Company  D,  the  tenth 
company. 

The  several  companies,  posted  as  above,  will  be  designated  from 
right  to  left  in  the  manoeuvres,  as  first,  second,  third,  fourth,  fifth, 
sixth,  seventh,  eighth,  ninth,  and  tenth  companies. 

All  officers  and  non-commissioned  officers  in  this  regiment  will  be 
recognized,  respected,  and  obeyed  according  to  their  respective  rank 
and  position  in  the  command. 

Officers  of  the  day  will  be  detailed  for  one  day's  duty  only,  or  until 
relieved. 

The  morning  reports  of  companies,  signed  by  the  captains  and  first 
sergeants,  will  be  handed  to  the  acting  adjutant  before  8  o'clock  in  the 
morning. 

All  roll-calls  prescribed  by  sections  224,  225,  and  226  of  article  27 
of  the  Army  Regulations  will  be  strictly  observed. 

The  provisions  of  the  Army  Regulations  of  1861  will  be  strictly 
observed,  as  the  acknowledged  and  standard  authority  from  the  war 


i862.]  AT  CAMP  COLBY.  17 

department,  for  the  government  of  this  regiment,  except  when  special 
necessity  requires  their  modification,  which  necessity  will  be  announced 
in  general  or  special  orders. 

By  order  of  Enoch  Q.  Fellows, 

Colonel  Commanding. 

GEORGE  H.  CHANDLER, 

Adjutant. 

Only  a  printed  list  of  names  ! — and  yet  the  men  who 
are  left  to-day  will  never  forget  the  thrill  of  conscious 
pride  with  which  they  heard  their  official  position  in  the 
regiment  thus  publicly  recognized ;  while  to  the  dear 
ones  of  those  whose  eyes  are  sealed  in  the  sleep  that 
knows  no  waking,  the  sight  of  names  once  so  familiar 
brings  back  the  past,  with  all  its  tender  memories  of  the 
loved  and  lost. 

The  Ninth  made  its  first  official  march  as  an  organ 
ization  to  the  state  house,  and  there  received  its  colors 
from  the  hands  of  Governor  Berry.  Then,  with  its  flags 
floating  gently  in  the  breeze,  to  the  sound  of  martial 
music — from  "  a  band  that  couldn't  be  beat" — the  regi 
ment  filed  out  of  the  state  house  yard,  up  the  Main  street, 
and  crossing  the  river  to  the  camp-ground,  held  its  first 
formal  dress  parade. 

The  next  day  was  Sunday,  August  24;  but  that 
there  are  no  Sabbaths  in  war,  is  a  saying  which  has  at 
least  a  foundation  of  fact,  and  while  the  regiment  was 
not  yet  sufficiently  near  to  the  scene  of  actual  warfare, 
nor  were  the  men  sufficiently  advanced  in  the  transition 
state  from  citizens  to  soldiers  to  realize  its  truth,  yet  they 
were  too  far  advanced  for  this  to  be  entirely  a  day  of 
rest.  Certain  soldierly  duties  were  to  be  performed— 
duties  necessary  for  the  well-being  and  discipline  of  the 
regiment,  and  which  could  not  be  neglected  even  for  a 


1 8  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE,  [August, 

day.  The  regular  guard-mounting  was  held  at  eight 
o'clock,  and  was  followed  by  an  inspection  by  Adjutant- 
General  Colby — "  Governor"  Colby  he  was  to  the  older 
generation,  and  was  often  familiarly  so  called,  having 
been  governor  of  the  state  in  i846-'47. 

To  the  members  of  each  company,  after  inspection  in 
their  respective  company  streets,  he  spoke  words  of 
caution  and  advice  in  a  familiar  and  fatherly  way,  yet 
pointedly  and  briefly,  as  became  a  man  of  his  great 
practical  common  sense.  Then  came  services  on  the 
parade  ground,  conducted  by  Chaplain  Gushee,  and 
these  were  attended  by  all  of  the  men  not  on  duty.  A 
great  number  of  visitors  was  present  at  these  services, 
and  a  still  greater  number  witnessed  the  evening  dress 
parade,  the  last  at  this  camp.  Many  a  good-bye  letter 
was  written  that  day,  and  each  man  in  his  own  way 
made  ready  for  the  great  event  of  the  morrow. 


CHAPLAIN  EDWARD  M.  GUSHKE. 


CHAPTER   II. 
FROM  CONCORD  TO  SOUTH  MOUNTAIN. 

On  that  well-remembered  25th  of  August  the  camp 
was  early  astir.  Knapsacks  were  packed,  the  teams 
loaded,  the  line  was  formed,  and  at  seven  o'clock — 
"  Adieu  to  Camp  Colby  !" 

Even  at  that  early  hour  there  were  crowds  of  people 
upon  the  streets,  and  they  greeted  the  regiment  with 
cheers  as  it  passed  on  its  way  to  the  station,  where  still 
greater  crowds  were  in  waiting.  But  there  was  little 
time  for  greetings  or  partings,  for  the  train  was  in  wait 
ing,  and  was  soon  filled.  The  twenty  cars  for  the  men 
were  unmistakably  "  filled,"  for  as  every  man  had  his 
gun  and  equipments,  his  knapsack  with  overcoat  and 
blanket-roll,  his  haversack  and  canteen,  there  was  no 
opportunity  for  an,y  one  to  occupy  more  than  his  own 
limited  share  of  seat,  rack,  or  even  floor  space.  An 
extra  car  for  the  officers,  with  six  cars  for  their  horses 
and  the  baggage,  made  up  a  train  whose  length  caused 
many  a  comment  among  the  men,  and  seemed  to  mag 
nify  their  already  enlarged  sense  of  their  own  importance. 

Providence  was  reached  without  any  unusual  incident, 
and  after  a  short  halt  here  the  next  stage  of  the  journey 
was  to  Groton,  Conn.  At  this  point  the  regiment  was 
transferred  to  the  steamer  Common-wealth ,  of  the  Ston- 
ingtoii  line,  and  landed  at  Jersey  City  about  eight  o'clock 
the  next  morning.  After  a  wait  here  of  several  hours, 


20  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [August, 

a  train  was  again  taken,  for  the  tedious  ride  across  the 
state  of  New  Jersey,  and  Philadelphia  was  reached  at  seven 
o'clock  in  the  evening.  Two  gentlemen,  representatives 
of  an  association  of  citizens,  were  in  waiting  at  the  sta 
tion,  and  conducted  the  regiment  to  the  famous  Union 
refreshment  saloon,  or  "Cooper  shop,"  where  they  were 
treated  to  a  bountiful  supper,  and  were  waited  upon  at 
the  tables  by  scores  of  fair  ladies.  From  the  saloon , 
through  streets  lined  with  throngs  of  enthusiastic  citi 
zens,  they  marched  back  to  the  railroad  station,  and  at 
ii  130  were  off  for  Baltimore,  that  mob-breeding  city, 
through  which  the  regiment  marched  next  day  without 
any  special  incident  except  that  they  were  treated  to  a 
good  dinner. 

On  arriving  at  Washington,  about  7:30  in  the  even 
ing,  the  regiment  was  met  at  the  Baltimore  &  Ohio  rail 
road  station  by  an  aid  of  General  Casey,  who  bore  an 
order  for  them  to  proceed  across  the  Long  bridge  into 
Virginia.  At  so  late  an  hour,  and  the  men  being 
fatigued  by  their  long  ride,  it  seemed  very  desirable 
that  they  should  remain  at  or  near  the  station  until 
morning.  But  orders  are  orders,  and  the  subaltern  of 
course  had  no  discretion  in  the  matter.  Colonel  Fel 
lows  inquired  where  he  could  find  General  Casey,  and 
being  informed  that  he  was  at  the  Ebbitt  House,  he 
accepted  the  invitation  of  the  messenger  to  accom 
pany  him  there  in  his  carriage.  Permission  for  the 
regiment  to  remain  where  it  was  for  that  night  was 
readily  obtained  from  the  general,  who  also  requested 
Colonel  Fellows  to  call  at  his  office  at  the  Long  bridge 
when  the  regiment  arrived  there. 

Early  the  next  morning  the  following  order  was 
received  : 


i862.]  FROM  CONCORD  TO  SOUTH  MOUNTAIN.  21 

HEAD-QUARTERS  PROVISIONAL  BRIGADES, 
WASHINGTON,  August  28,  1862. 

568  Fourteenth  street. 
SPECIAL  ORDERS, 

No.  70. 

1.  The  9th  New  Hampshire  Vols.,  Col.  E.  Q.  Fellows,  will  proceed 
without  delay  across  the  Long  Bridge  and  encamp  at  Camp  "Chase" 
near  Fort  "Albany.11 

2.  Col.  D.  H.  Rucker,  Q.  M.,  U.  S.  A.,  will  furnish  the  necessary 
transportation. 

By  order  of  Brig.  Gen.  Casey. 
C.  H.  RAYMOND, 

Lt.  and  Aide. 
COL.  FELLOWS, 

9th  N.  H. 

In  compliance  with  this  order  the  regiment  started  about 
eight  o'clock,  and  on  arrival  at  the  Long  bridge  was 
halted  while  Colonel  Fellows  made  his  call  at  General 
Casey's  office.  After  giving  him  directions  in  regard  to 
the  crossing  into  Virginia,  General  Casey  handed  Colo 
nel  Fellows  the  following  order  of  assignment : 

HEAD-QUARTERS  PROVISIONAL  BRIGADES, 
WASHINGTON,  August  28th,  1862. 

568  Fourteenth  street. 
SPECIAL  ORDERS, 

No.  72. 

The  following  named  Regiments  are  assigned  to  Gen1!  Whipple's 
command,  and  their  respective  Colonels  will,  in  person,  report  to  him, 
viz. : 

1.  9th  Regt.  New  Hampshire  Volunteers. 

2.  1 2oth  Regt.  New  York  Volunteers. 

By  order  of  Gen1!  Casey. 

ROBERT  N.  SCOTT, 
Capt.  tfh  Infy,  A.  A.  A.  G. 

The  Ninth  regiment,  New  Hampshire  volunteers,  had 
reached  historic  ground !  The  famous  Long  bridge, 


2 2  NINTH  NE  W  HA MPSHIRE.  [August, 

spanning  the  Potomac,  was  a  wooden  structure,  the 
framework  resting  chiefly  on  piling,  with  a  few  stone 
piers,  and  its  name  became  a  familiar  one  to  the  country 
during  the  war.  Hundreds  of  thousands  of  soldiers 
crossed  and  recrossed  it.  Many  times  it  shook  beneath 
the  tread  of  regiments,  brigades,  and  divisions  marching- 
to  "  the  front."  Many  thousands  of  the  brave  men  who- 
crossed  it,  with  their  faces  southward,  did  not  return. 
Through  all  those  days,  weeks,  months,  and  years, 
wagons  trailed  over  it,  laden  with  supplies  of  food, 
clothing,  and  ammunition  for  the  army.  Hundreds  of 
ambulances  bore  across  it  their  burdens  of  wounded  and 
suffering  soldiers.  The  Long  bridge  was  the  connecting 
link  between  Washington  and  the  brave,  patient,  and 
long-suffering  Army  of  the  Potomac. 

On  crossing  the  bridge,  the  regiment  was  met  on  the 
Virginia  side  by  Col.  Daniel  Hall,  of  Dover,  then  a  cap 
tain  on  General  Whipple's  staff.  Captain  Hall  con 
ducted  the  regiment  to  the  high  ground  some  two  miles- 
to  the  westward,  the  place  of  the  designated  camping- 
ground, — "  Camp  'Chase,'  near  Fort  'Albany,'"  and 
soon  afterwards  Colonel  Fellows  reported  in  person  to> 
General  Whipple,  at  his  head-quarters,  not  far  distant. 

Such  is  the  story,  officially  told,  of  how  it  was,  that  in- 
obedience  to  the  order  to  proceed  with  the  regiment  to- 
Washington  and  report  to  Major-General  Halleck,  the' 
Ninth  New  Hampshire  was  transported  from  Concord  to> 
Washington,  from  New  Hampshire  to  Virginia  soil,  and 
from  state  to  federal  control.  But  there  was  a  stand 
point,  other  than  that  of  authority  and  responsibility^ 
from  which  it  was  viewed  by  all  the  rest,  or  well-nigh 
all  the  rest,  of  the  regiment,  to  whom  the  trip  was  a 
novelty  and  its  scenes  and  incidents  were  new  and 


1862.]  FROM  CONCORD   TO  SOUTH  MOUNTAIN.  23 

intensely  interesting.  And  how  it  all  appeared,  espe 
cially  to  the  farmer  boys,  who  had  never  before  been  out 
of  sight  of  their  native  hills,  but  whose  keen  eyes  noth 
ing  escaped, — and  of  such  was  the  majority — can  best 
be  told,  and  in  fact  can  be  truthfully  told,  only  by  them 
selves  ;  and  how  they  told  it,  in  diaries  kept  and  in  let 
ters  to  home  friends,  the  following  will  show: 

A  COMPOSITE  DIARY. 
From  the  rank  and  file. 

"As  we  marched  down  Main  street  [in  Concord]  citi 
zens  of  both  sexes  filled  windows,  doors,  and  balconies, 
and  hundreds  with  tearful  eyes  signalled  their  final  adieus. 
At  the  depot  the  scene  was  an  inexpressibly  sad  one. 
One  thought  occupied  all  minds  and  filled  every 
eye  with  tears, — '  Many  of  these  now  going  forth  will 
return  no  more.'  Oh,  blessed  uncertainty  that  does  not 
reveal  which  shall  be  taken  and  which  left ! 

"Everywhere  along  the  route  the  people  flocked  out 
to  welcome  us  and  bid  us  '  God  speed.'  As  this  is  my 
first  experience  in  travelling  by  water,  I  find  much  to 
astonish  and  interest  me. 

"At  five  o'clock  the  next  morning  I  went  on  deck. 
The  sea  was  slightly  ruffled  by  the  brisk  breeze  against 
which  our  noble  steamer  was  majestically  working  her 
way.  On  our  left  lay  Long  Island,  presenting  a  beauti 
ful  variety  of  groves,  sandbanks,  and  green,  sloping  hill 
sides  ;  while  on  the  right  were  numerous  small  islands, 
on  many  of  which  were  elegant  mansions,  and  on  every 
hand  were  water-craft  of  all  descriptions,  from  the  tiny 
skiff  to  the  huge  man-o'-war  with  its  wide-spreading 
sails  and  frowning  port-holes. 


2  4  NINTH  NE  W  HA MPSHIRE.  [ A  ugust, 

"  .  .  .  But  soon  the  natural  scenery  began  to  grow 
less  like  nature,  and  the  increased  number  of  vessels  told 
us  we  were  nearing  the  '  Empire  City.'  As  we  passed 
steamers  and  ferry-boats,  cheers  were  exchanged  by  the 
soldiers  and  crowds  of  passengers ;  our  band  standing 
forward  on  the  deck  played  national  airs,  and  the  whole 
scene  was  one  to  inspire  a  glow  of  national  pride  in 
every  heart.  As  we  passed  up  between  New  York 
and  Brooklyn,  on  either  side  was  a  forest  of  masts, 
and  beyond  a  sea  of  houses. 

"  When  we  landed  at  Jersey  City  and  marched  through 
the  streets,  I  was  much  more  impressed  by  the  charac 
ter  of  the  inhabitants  than  the  appearance  of  the  place. 
.  No  sooner  did  we  halt  here  than  scores  of 
women,  neatly  attired  and  with  smiling  faces,  came 
out  with  tea,  coffee,  and  eatables,  while  the  boys 
flocked  around,  eager  to  fill  our  canteens  with  ice 
water. 

" Arrived  at  Philadelphia  in  the  evening,  via  Trenton. 
There  we  were  furnished  with  a  splendid  supper  by  a 
society  which,  free  of  expense,  furnishes  every  regiment 
passing  through  the  city  with  a  sumptuous  meal.  After 
the  regiment  had  been  victualled,  we  marched  about  two 
miles  to  the  Baltimore  depot,  and  during  all  the  route  the 
streets  were  thronged  with  women  and  children  shaking 
our  hands  and  saying  '  Good-bye,  soldier ;  good-bye, 
brother,'  with  as  much  apparent  emotion  as  though  we 
had  been  their  own  citizens.  These  expressions  of  pat 
riotism  and  hospitality  have  given  our  men  an  exalted 
opinion  of  the  '  City  of  Brotherly  Love '  which  they  will 
not  soon  forget. 

"  Soon  after  daybreak  we  reached  the  Susquehanna  at 
'  Havre  de  Grace,'  where  after  a  short  delay  we  crossed 


1862.]  FROM  CONCORD   TO  SOUTH  MOUNTAIN.  25 

on  a  ferry.  Went  into  the  cabin  and  took  a  breakfast, 
for  which  I  paid  25  cents.  Arrived  at  Baltimore  about 
noon,  and  marched  through  the  streets  where  the  first 
blood  was  shed  in  this  great  war  for  freedom,  to  the 
Washington  depot.  Our  reception  was  not  much  like 
that  received  in  Jersey  City  and  Philadelphia,  yet  here 
we  were  supplied  with  'a  good  dinner  and  the  boys  filled 
our  canteens  with  water  without  charge. 

"As  we  went  on  through  Maryland,  we  seemed  to 
be  passing  into  a  land  of  antiquity.  Everything  which 
we  beheld  bore  evidence  of  the  enervating  influence  of 
slavery. 

"Arrived  at  Washington  about  dark,  and  of  course  we 
were  somewhat  fatigued  by  our  journey,  although  it  was 
a  very  pleasant  one,  all  things  considered.  Our  regi 
ment  was  fed  and  lodged  at  the  'Soldiers'  Retreat.' 
They  tell  us  that  troops  are  pouring  in  continually 
from  all  quarters,  at  the  rate  of  10,000  per  day,  and 
it  is  a  wonder  to  me  how  they  manage  to  feed  them 
here,  for  they  all  come  hungry. 

"  We  had  not  room  enough  in  the  'Retreat'  for  all  to 
lie  down  comfortably ;  each  man  was  compelled  to  lie 
*  top  of  his  equipments,'  and  then  they  were  so  thick  it 
was  almost  impossible  to  walk  through  without  walking 
on  men  ;  so  I  took  my  luggage  and  equipments,  went  out 
of  doors,  and  slept  nicely  till  morning. 

"As  soon  as  it  was  light  I  washed  up,  and  it  seemed 
as  though  a  cup  of  tea  would  do  me  good,  for  I  had  no 
appetite  for  breakfast.  I  had  the  tea,  but  how  to  get 
it  steeped  was  the  question.  Taking  a  good  drawing 
from  my  knapsack,  I  watched  my  opportunity  to  pass 
the  guard,  and  started  for  some  rusty-looking  houses  at 
some  distance  from  the  barracks.  When  I  arrived  there 


26  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [August, 

I  perceived  by  more  than  one  sense  that  they  were 
inhabited  by  Irish  families,  including  men,  women, 
children,  goats,  fowls,  etc.  After  calling  at  several 
places  where  they  *  didn't  make  any  fire  yet,'  I  at 
length  found  some  hot  water  and  a  woman  who  was 
perfectly  willing  to  loan  the  use  of  her  teapot,  and 
without  reference  to  the  environment,  I  made  the  infu 
sion  and  drank  it  with  a  very  good  relish,  poured  some 
in  my  canteen,  and  put  back  to  camp. 

"  .  .  .  I  expected  to  see  the  '  elephant'  this  morn 
ing,  but  am  disappointed  in  beholding  nothing  but  an 
ungainly  calf.  Everything  appears  either  unfinished  or 
so  antique  as  to  be  fast  going  to  decay.  My  ill  feelings 
may  have  something  to  do  with  giving  me  these  impres 
sions,  but  I  am  sure  I  should  never  regard  the  droves  of 
speckled,  black,  and  brindled  hogs  which  I  saw  on  the 
sidewalks,  nor  the  dead  horse  which  I  saw  in  the  street, 
as  an  ornament  to  any  city.  Did  not  have  time  to  visit 
the  public  buildings,  which  we  are  informed  are  the 
glory  of  the  city. 

"About  eight  o'clock  this  morning  they  formed  the 
regiment  in  line  of  march  for  Arlington  Heights,  but, 
feeling  unable  to  march,  I  with  several  others  hired 
some  teams  to  carry  ourselves  and  luggage.  I  felt  rather 
cheap  to  fail  up  on  the  first  march,  but  I  could  not  have 
stood  it,  for  they  took  the  regiment  in  the  first  place  for  a 
'  show '  round  through  the  city,  and  they  raised  such  a 
dust  that  you  could  not  see  ten  paces  ahead,  and  before 
they  reached  the  camp-ground  at  least  one  half  the  regi 
ment  had  fallen  out  by  the  way. 

"  .  .  .  The  sun  shone  terribly  hot,  and  many  of 
us  have  knapsacks  too  heavy  by  far  for  the  march.  But 
we  are  now  here,  encamped  in  an  orchard,  and  the  men 


1 862.]  FROM  CONCORD  TO  SOUTH  MOUNTAIN.  2>J 

are  in  good  spirits.  Quite  a  shower  came  up  before  we 
got  our  tents  pitched,  during  which  we  protected  our 
selves  as  best  we  could  with  our  rubber  blankets.  Got 
our  tents  up  just  before  night,  and  turned  in  for  our  first 
sleep  on  Virginia  soil.  I  presume  we  shall  not  remain 
here  more  than  two  or  three  days  before  moving  nearer 
the  main  army,  which  I  understand  is  nearing  us." 

The  trip  so  full  of  interest  to  the  farmer  boy  and 
embryo  soldier,  was  probably  as  devoid  of  happenings 
as  such  a  journey  could  well  be ;  and  but  for  the  fact  of 
having  been  recorded  at  the  time,  its  scenes  and  inci 
dents,  obscured  by  distance,  and  especially  by  the  inter 
vening  and  all-important  events  of  the  life  upon  which 
they  were  entering,  would  have  sunk  from  sight  or 
remained  a  mere  speck  upon  the  horizon  of  memory. 

One  incident,  recalled  by  a  letter  written  at  the  time 
by  an  officer  of  the  regiment,  may  be  mentioned  as 
fairly  illustrative  of  ordinary  military  methods  : 

After  seeing  the  men  distributed  about  the  boat  and 
made  as  comfortable  as  possible,  the  officers  began  to 
think  about  supper.  In  reply  to  their  inquiries  and 
requests,  they  were  informed  by  the  captain  that  supper 
would  not  be  served  until  the  passengers  by  the  eleven 
o'clock  train  were  on  board.  Hunger,  however,  is  not 
conducive  to  formality,  even  in  an  officer,  and  about  ten 
o'clock  they  marched  to  the  dining-room  and  seated 
themselves  at  the  tables.  Supper  was  not  forthcoming, 
but  the  captain  was  ;  and  he  threatened,  if  they  did  not 
leave,  to  turn  on  the  steam  and  drive  them  out.  "  Cap 
tain,"  said  the  colonel,  "give  us  our  suppers,  or  I'll  take 
possession  of  this  boat  and  run  it  myself."  Whether  the 
captain  realized  that  he  was  outranked  on  his  own  boat, 


28  ATINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [August, 

or  simply  concluded  to  exercise  that  "better  part  of 
valor,"  is  immaterial.  The  supper  was  served,  and  the 
first  victory  of  the  Ninth  New  Hampshire  was  a  blood 
less  one. 

Late  in  the  afternoon  of  the  day  of  the  arrival  of  the 
regiment  at  Camp  Chase,  tents  were  received,  but  not 
enough  for  the  entire  regiment,  several  of  the  officers 
-even  being  tentless.  The  lieutenant-colonel  and  the 
adjutant  were  quartered  in  the  porch  of  a  house  near  by, 
and  guarded  the  entrance  as  faithfully  as  sleeping  senti 
nels  could. 

About  three  o'clock  the  next  morning  the  regiment 
was  suddenly  aroused  by  the  beat  of  the  long-roll,  and 
there  ran  through  the  camp  the  order  to  "Turn  out 
under  arms!"  This  was  promptly  done,  and,  leaving 
only  the  camp  guard  and  the  non-combatants  behind, 
the  regiment  was  conducted  through  the  darkness  to — 
"somewhere,"  about  half  a  mile  away,  though  the 
length  of  this  silent,  strange,  and  darksome  march 
seemed  much  greater ;  and  after  standing  for  a  half  hour 
or  more  stupidly  in  line,  or  supposedly  so — many  of  the 
men  resting  prone  upon  the  ground,  and  some  of  them 
being  fast  asleep — marched  back  to  camp.  It  was  then 
ordered  to  the  Chain  bridge,  some  miles  above  the  city, 
and  after  a  hasty  breakfast  of  bread  and  coffee  again 
started,  taking  blankets,  canteens,  and  a  full  day's 
rations  in  their  haversacks.  After  proceeding  about  a 
mile  and  a  half  the  order  was  countermanded,  and  again 
the  regiment  returned  to  camp.  Then  striking  tents, — 
those  who  had  them — and  marching  past  the  historic 
Arlington  mansion, — the  home  of  Lee — the  regiment 
continued  about  two  and  a  half  miles  in  a  northerly 
direction,  having  been  assigned  to  a  camping-ground 


i862.]  FROM  CONCORD  TO  SOUTH  MOUNTAIN.  29 

between  Forts  Woodbury  and  Corcoran  which  was. 
known  as  Camp  Whipple.  By  order  of  General  Whip- 
pie  two  companies  were  then  sent  on  a  scout  to  Falls 
church,  a  few  miles  distant. 

There  were  one  or  two  line  officers  who  had  been 
in  the  service  previously,  and  they,  judging  perhaps 
from  some  like  experience,  surmised  that  this  early 
morning  "  turn-out"  might  have  been  a  mere  ruse  de 
guerre  to  familiarize  the  men  with  war's  alarms,  and 
to  teach  every  man  to  have  his  gun  and  equipments, 
and  in  fact  all  his  belongings,  where  he  could  lay  his 
hand  on  them  at  any  time,  day  or  night ;  and  this  not 
withstanding  the  severe  punishment  to  which  any  officer 
might  be  liable  who  should  occasion  a  false  alarm  in 
camp.  The  second  order,  however, — to  march  to  the 
Chain  bridge — would  evidently  be  carrying  any  such 
grim  joke  a  little  too  far,  even  for  purposes  of  discipline. 
It  seems,  rather,  from  the  facts  and  circumstances,  that 
the  correct  explanation  was  given  by  a  private,  who 
remarked  in  a  peculiar  drawling  tone  and  with  a 
touch  of  the  Yankee  twang,  "I  guess  somebody  was 
skairt." 

A  diary  entry  of  this  their  ''first  great  military  ex 
ploit,"  as  it  is  somewhat  facetiously  called,  is  as  fol 
lows  : 

"The  night  was  very  dark;  not  half  of  us  knew 
where  to  get  into  line  or  which  way  to  face.  In  fact,  we 
don't  know  anything,  and  until  we  have  some  drill  it  can 
hardly  be  expected  that  we  should.  After  much  bewil 
derment  we  got  into  line  and  started  off  with  our  guns, 
leaving  everything  else  behind.  Wondered  what  we 
could  do  without  ammunition,  but  felt  sure  that  we  could: 
do  some  fighting  at  the  point  of  the  bayonet." 


30  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [August, 

While  the  opinion  thus  expressed  as  to  their  knowl 
edge,  or  rather  their  want  of  it,  was  somewhat  of  a 
depreciative  exaggeration,  it  is  quite  true  that  in  the 
school  of  the  soldier  the  regiment  had  still  much  to  learn  ; 
and  it  is  equally  true,  that  during  the  stay  at  this  camp 
there  was  little  opportunity  to  learn  it.  There  was  an 
average  total  of  one  day  of  drill,  by  company  and  squad, 
and  a  single  dress  parade — and  that  was  all,  except  the 
daily  detail  for  camp  guard  and  of  a  company  or  more 
for  picket  duty. 

But  in  "fatigue  duty"  the  regiment  became,  or  at 
least  had  the  opportunity  to  become,  quite  proficient. 
This  was  performed  mostly  with  the  shovel,  digging 
rifle-pits  or  constructing  other  earthworks  for  defence, 
and  then  with  the  ax,  felling  the  trees  in  their  front  or 
wherever  a  possible  military  necessity  or  advantage 
might  require.  And  this  possibility  did  not  spare  the 
orchards,  nor  have  regard  for  shade  or  ornament ;  the 
ruthless  hand  of  war  laid  the  ax  even  unto  the  roots,  and 
every  tree  which  might  afford  concealment  or  protection 
to  an  advancing  enemy  was  hewn  down,  irrespective  of 
its  value  or  the  quality  of  its  fruit. 

This  digging  and  tree  cutting  was  largely  upon  the 
Lee  estate,  and  all  of  it  presumably  on  the  property  of 
the  enemy ;  and  yet  it  was  not  without  regret  and 
thoughts  of  home  trees,  and  of  the  years  required 
to  bring  them  to  maturity,  that  this  destruction  was 
wrought. 

This  fatigue  duty  showed  the  advantage  of  being  a 
non-commissioned  officer  in  a  new  light,  as  ordinarily 
but  two  corporals  and  perhaps  a  sergeant  were  detailed 
with  a  company ;  and  these  were  not  expected  to  work 
themselves — only  to  see  that  the  men  worked — each  act- 


1 862.]  FROM  CONCORD   TO  SOUTH  MOUNTAIN.  31 

ing  as  a  sort  of  "foreman  of  the  gang,"  as  a  detailed 
corporal  somewhat  pretentiously,  though  not  inaptly, 
styled  himself.  Nor  was  it  the  non-commissioned  officers 
alone  who  considered  themselves  fortunate  in  this  respect, 
for  the  whole  detail  was  in  charge  of  a  single  commis 
sioned  officer. 

"  For  fatigue  purposes"  the  "Army  Regulations"  pre 
scribe  "a  sack  coat  of  dark  blue  flannel  extending  half 
way  down  the  thigh,  and  made  loose,  without  sleeve  or 
body  lining,  falling  collar,  inside  pocket  on  the  left  side, 
four  buttons  down  the  front."  Now  though  the  men  had 
little  knowledge  of  tactics,  and  still  less  of  "Regula 
tions,"  they  did  know  the  first  duty  of  the  soldier — to 
obey  orders.  So  they  went  to  their  daily  digging  with 
out  a  murmur,  stripped  off  their  uniform  coats,  all 
'  unconscious  that  they  were  not  of  the  prescribed  pattern 
for  such  duty,  and  toiling  away  in  the  hot  August  sun, 
piled  up  the  fresh  earth  and — malaria;  the  one  as  a 
defence  against  an  enemy  that  never  there  appeared,  the 
other  in  itself  a  foe  far  more  insidious  and  no  less  dan 
gerous,  and  one  that,  often  re-enforced  and  constantly 
encountered,  many  a  man,  surviving  all  else,  has  found 
was  never  to  be  conquered. 

A  diary  belonging  to  one  of  Stonewall  Jackson's  men 
was  picked  up  somewhere  in  the  track  of  his  famous 
"foot  cavalry,"  and  day  after  day,  for  many  days  in 
succession,  it  contained  only  this  succinct  entry:  "We 
marched."  With  equal  conciseness,  for  an  average  of 
at  least  four  of  their  eight  days  at  this  camp,  even  the 
regimental  journal  might  read,  "We  shovelled;"  and 
for  another  two  days,  "We  chopped."  The  Yankees, 
however,  were  more  elaborate  in  their  descriptions,  as 
appears  by  the  following  diary  entries  : 


32  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [August, 

"  Our  company  was  detailed  to  go  out  and  chop. 
Started  about  eight  o'clock  in  the  morning  and  worked 
all  day,  and  was  mighty  tired  come  night." 

"  Rain  set  in  during  the  forenoon.  Thought  I  should 
have  a  nice  time,  however,  for  writing  letters  in  our 
snug  little  tent,  but  just  as  I  was  getting  out  my  port 
folio  the  order  came  to  '  Fall  in,'  and  oft'  we  went  to  dig 
rifle-pits.  Worked  hard  at  this  all  day." 

"  Went  out  digging  to-day  on  the  same  line  of  in- 
trenchments  we  were  engaged  upon  yesterday.  It  is 
rather  hard  work,  but  we  take  it  easy;  and  if  we  can 
serve  our  country  better  in  this  way  than  in  any  other,  I 
am  content." 

"  Our  company  was  on  '  fatigue'  again  to-day.  Were 
set  at  work  felling  trees  along  the  Potomac.  For  my 
self,  not  only  chopped  trees  but  also  a  generous  slice  off 
of  one  of  my  fingers.  In  consequence,  'bled'  for  my 
country  for  the  first  time.  A  man  in  a  Pennsylvania 
regiment  near  us  was  instantly  killed  by  the  falling  of  a 
tree  upon  him." 

The  lamenting  diarist  last  above  quoted,  thus  closes 
his  chronicling  for  the  day  : 

"  Such  is  our  first  Sabbath  in  Virginia.  I  wonder  no 
longer  that  soldiers  forget  the  day  of  the  week  and  can't 
tell  when  Sunday  comes.  Oh,  when  shall  we  see  again 
a  quiet  Sabbath,  such  as  we  are  wont  to  enjoy  at  home  !" 

and  another  adds  this  cumulative  evidence  : 

"First  Sabbath  in  a  Virginia  camp.  It  has  rained 
powerfully  all  day.  This  morning  the  most  of  our  regi 
ment  not  on  duty  were  detailed  to  work  on  the  fortifica 
tions.  Marched  about  a  mile  in  the  rain  and  mud  to  get 


1862.]  FROM  CONCORD  TO  SOUTH  MOUNTAIN.  33 

our  tools,   thence   to  the  work.      Returned  to    camp  at 
night,  tired  out  and  hungry." 

Such  were  the  associations  connected  with  this  day, 
and  such  were  its  contrasts ;  but  notwithstanding  the 
unmilitary  character  of  the  duties,  the  stay  at  this  camp 
was  not  uneventful,  nor  without  its  object  lessons,  pre 
senting  in  panoramic  picture  some  unexpected  phases  of 
the  life  upon  which  the  men  were  entering. 

The  first  night,  about  eleven  o'clock,  an  order  came 
from  General  Whipple  to  send  out  two  companies  on 
picket,  and  Companies  I  and  C  were  sent  accordingly. 
An  hour  later,  in  compliance  with  another  order,  the  en 
tire  regiment  was  aroused  and  turned  out  under  arms, — as 
on  the  previous  night  at  Camp  Chase — and  then  turned 
in  again  without  leaving  camp. 

The  next  morning  the  leading  regiments  of  the 
Second  corps  (Sumner's)  were  marching  past.  They 
had  arrived  from  the  Peninsula  the  day  before,  having 
disembarked  at  Alexandria.  It  was  an  inspiring  sight 
to  see  them  thus  moving  towards  the  battle-field,  march 
ing,  as  it  seemed,  to  the  music  of  the  already  open 
ing  guns  of  this  second  day  of  the  Second  Bull  Run. 
The  absence  of  artillery  was  noticeable,  the  horses 
having  been  shipped  by  other  transports  and  arriving 
later.  But  why  they  should  be  here,  marching  ten  or 
more  miles  away  from,  instead  of  towards,  Pope,  Jack 
son,  and  Longstreet;  and  why  halted  for  the  day,  while 
the  whole  corps  came  up  and  stretched  away  in  posi 
tion  not  far  from  the  camp,  seemed  somewhat  of  a  puz 
zle.  Could  it  have  any  connection  with  the  "  scare"  of 
the  two  previous  nights? 

How   these    veterans    of    the  Army  of    the    Potomac 
in 


34  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [August, 

appeared   to   the   embryo   soldiers,   can   best   be  told  in 
their  own  language.     One  diary  runs  thus  : 

"They  looked  weather-beaten,  worn  out,  and  ragged. 
Some  are  almost  destitute  of  shoes.  They  are  in  the 
lightest  marching  order  possible,  not  one  in  a  hundred 
having  a  knapsack  ;  and  yet  they  marched  on  toward  the 
battle-field,  whence  could  be  heard  the  roar  of  artillery 
at  this  place,  with  apparent  cheerfulness. 

"They  call  us  'bounty  men,'  and  growl  some  as  they 
see  new  troops  lying  still  here.  One  says,  'Why  don't 
they  send  these  fellows  over  to  Bull  Run?'  'Oh, 'says 
another,  'they  are  afraid  they  would  dirty  their  new- 
clothes.' 

"Long  trains  of  ambulances  for  the  wounded  also 
passed.  I  was  much  interested  in  examining  them  to 
see  what  kind  of  provision  the  government  had  made 
for  the  suffering  and  unfortunate  soldiers." 

And  this,  from  another  diary  : 

"This  morning  another  division  passed  by  on  their 
way  to  the  scene  of  conflict.  They  had  left  the  boats 
at  Alexandria  the  night  before,  and  halted  for  two  or 
three  hours  in  a  field  near  us.  Soon  after  our  reveille 
had  sounded  their  drums  beat,  and  in  what  seemed  to 
me  an  incredibly  short  time  they  were  in  line  and  mov 
ing  forward.  Dust  was  plenty  and  water  scarce,  and 
they  besides  had  no  time  or  chance  to  apply  the  latter. 
Their  uniforms  were  faded,  and  some  of  them  in  rags. 
Knapsacks  and  all  the  'extras'  in  a  soldier's  outfit  were 
extremelv  scarce  among  them,  and  as  they  marched  by, 
dirty,  haggard,  weary,  and  footsore,  some  of  them  shoe 
less,  looking  upon  such  a  scene  for  the  first  time,  I 


CAPT.  CHARLES  W.  EDGEBLY,  Co.  H.  CAPT.  JAMES  BLAISDELL,  Co.  H. 


SERGT.  OSMON  B 


.  WARREN,  Co.  H.  CORP.  WILLIAM  J.  LAVENDER,  Co.  H. 


i862.]  FROM  CONCORD  TO  SOUTH  MOUNTAIN.  35 

viewed  it  with  mingled  surprise,  pity,  and  admiration. 
This  was  a  new  phase  in  soldier  life  to  me,  and  the 
thought  came,  4  Can  it  be  possible  that  this  is  what  you 
may  and  probably  will  have  to  come  to ;  and  is  it  not 
rather  more  than  you  bargained  for?'" 

The  camping-ground  bordered  upon  the  road,  above 
which  it  was  sufficiently  elevated  to  enable  the  men, 
when  standing  upon  the  line  between  camp  and  high 
way,  to  look  down  upon  this  moving  scene,  so  fascinat 
ing  in  its  ever-changing  monotony.  It  presented  indeed 
"  a  new  phase  in  soldier  life,"  even  to  the  few  to  whom 
so  many  phases  of  that  life  were  not  unfamiliar. 

Standing  thus,  as  the  men  of  the  Fifth  New  Hamp 
shire  were  marching  past, — plodding  along,  bronzed, 
dirty,  and  grim,  perfect  types  of  the  self-reliance  and 
dogged  determination  of  the  veteran  soldier — one  of  the 
men,  after  gazing  at  them  in  silence  for  a  time,  finally 
exclaimed,  "My  God  !  Shall  WE  ever  look  like  that?" 

There  were  mutual  recognitions  and  hearty  greet 
ings  between  the  men  of  the  two  regiments, — the  one 
already  known  by  its  well  earned  and  historic  name  of 
the  "Fighting  Fifth,"  the  other  whose  less  euphonious 
appellation  of  the  "Bloody  Ninth "  was  so  soon  to  be 
acquired. 

They  halted  for  the  day  not  far  away,  and  Colonel 
Cross  paid  the  camp  quite  a  visit.  In  return,  he  was 
complimented  at  his  head-quarters  with  a  serenade  by 
the  regimental  band.  Major  Sturtevant  was  another 
welcome  guest.  Known  personally  to  Colonel  Fellows 
and  Captain  Edgerly,  with  whom  he  had  served  in  the 
First  regiment,  and  to  Adjutant  Chandler  as  a  towns 
man,  he  was  also  known  to  all  as  the  first  enlisted  soldier 


36  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [September, 

in  the  state,  as  well  as  the  first  to  receive  authority  to 
recruit,  and  as  a  brave,  gallant,  and  efficient  officer. 
These  worthy  representatives  of  the  old  Granite  state, 
who  had  already  won  an  enviable  military  reputation, 
both  gave  their  lives  to  their  country — dying  as  the 
soldier  dies,  and  would  wish  to  die — the  one  at.  Get 
tysburg,  to  be  interred  with  merited  honor  in  his  own 
loved  state,  at  the  place  of  his  birth  ;  the  other  at  Fred- 
ericksburg,  to  lie  in  an  unmarked  and  unknown  grave. 

The  first  of  September,  General  McClellan,  going  in 
the  direction  of  Washington,  and  accompanied  by  two 
of  his  stafT,  reined  out  of  the  highway  and  rode 
through  the  camp.  He  was  immediately  recognized, 
and  those  who  caught  the  word  had  a  good  look  at  the 
man  in  whom  it  can  truly  be  said  that  the  army  then 
believed,  whatever  opinions  may  have  afterwards  been 
formed. 

On  the  second,  Colonel  Fellows  was  assigned  by  Gen 
eral  Whipple  to  the  command  of  a  brigade  of  his  division 
of  the  Army  Reserve  corps.  This  brigade  was  composed 
of  four  newly  arrived  regiments,  including  the  Ninth,  and 
there  were  comprised  in  the  command  Forts  Woodbury 
and  Corcoran  and  three  other  forts  in  the  immediate 
vicinity,  commanding  the  approaches  to  the  Aqueduct 
and  the  Chain  bridges,  for  the  immediate  defence  of 
which  these  regiments  had  been  encamped  there.  Colo 
nel  Fellows  was  not  the  ranking  colonel  of  the  brigade, 
but  having  been  in  the  service  for  more  than  a  year,  as 
well  as  by  reason  of  his  West  Point  training,  he  was 
thought  by  General  Whipple  to  be  the  best  qualified  for 
the  position. 

On  assuming  command,  Colonel  Fellows  issued  the 
following  order  : 


1 862.]  FROM  CONCORD  TO  SOUTH  MOUNTAIN.  37 

HEAD-QUARTERS  4TH  BRIGADE,  WHIPPLE'S  DIVISION, 

September  2nd,  1862. 
GENERAL  ORDERS 

No.  i. 

According  to  General  Order  No.  25,  the  undersigned  assumes  com 
mand  of  the  4th  Brigade,  Whipple's  Division. 

Owing  to  the  exigencies  of  the  service,  it  is  of  the  utmost  importance 
that  the  regiments  composing  this  brigade  should  be  ready  to  take  the 
field  at  the  earliest  possible  moment;  consequently,  when  not  on 
fatigue  duty  the  regimental  commanders  will  occupy  all  the  time  in 
squad,  company,  and  battalion  drill,  and  will  likewise  establish  a 
school  for  theoretical  instruction  of  officers  ;  and  no  officer  will  be 
•excused  from  drill  unless  sick  or  on  duty. 

No  fire-arms  will  be  discharged  in  or  about  the  camp  without  per 
mission  of  the  commanding  officer. 

Hereafter  regimental  morning  reports  will  be  sent  to  these  head 
quarters  before  nine  o'clock. 

E.  Q.  FELLOWS, 

Col.  f)th  N.  H.  V.,  Con? g  Brigade. 
GEORGE  H.  CHANDLER, 

ist  Lieut.,  $tA  Ar.  H.  I/.,  Acting  A.  A.  G. 

The  supposed  exigencies  of  the  service  were  such, 
however,  that  not  only  the  Ninth,  but  all  the  other  regi 
ments  of  this  brigade,  were  kept  on  fatigue  duty,  as 
already  stated  ;  and  as  for  the  discharge  of  fire-arms,  it 
is  needless  to  say  that  this  part  of  the  order  was  obeyed 
to  the  very  letter,  for  the  ammunition  issued  to  the  men 
the  day  previous  did  not  fit  their  rifles,  and  none  of  the 
right  calibre  could  there  be  obtained. 

September  3  came  the  report  (which  proved  to  be 
true)  that  General  Pope  had  been  removed  at  his  own 
request,  and  General  McClellan  assigned  to  the  com 
mand. 

About  1,300  prisoners,  captured  by  the  Confederates 
at  Bull  Run  the  Saturday  previous,  halted  for  a  while  in 
front  of  the  camp.  They  had  been  paroled  on  the  bat- 


38  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [September, 

tie-field,  and  were  going  to  Washington.  They  seemed 
bright  and  cheerful,  and  were  quite  communicative. 
The  one  hope  expressed  was,  that  they  might  be 
promptly  exchanged  and  returned  to  their  regiments  to 
try  it  again.  To  say  they  were  a  "  hard-looking  lot/' 
would  be  but  to  repeat,  in  uncouth  phrase,  a  very  sum 
mary  description  of  them  written  at  the  time,  written, 
however,  from  the  standpoint  of  good  clothes,  personal 
cleanliness,  tented  sleep,  and  abundant  rations,  the 
standpoint  of  one  all  unused  to  the  stern  realities  which 
make  the  veteran — the  weary  march,  the  blazing  sky, 
the  shelterless  bivouac,  the  strain  of  battle,  the  un- 
quenched  thirst  and  the  empty  haversack. 

On  the  4th  there  was  a  partial  but  welcome  relief  from 
fatigue  duty,  and  for  the  first  time  since  leaving  Con 
cord  there  was  opportunity  for  company  drill  by  a  por 
tion  of  the  regiment.  After  this  there  was  no  further 
"fatigue"  duty,  and  no  present  need  of  more  intrench- 
ments,  for  Washington  was  now  encircled  by  an  army 
of  veterans.  The  Army  of  the  Potomac  from  the 
Peninsula  and  the  Army  of  Virginia  from  the  front  had 
returned — some  of  them — to  their  old  camping-grounds 
— back  again  to  their  starting-point  of  five  months  ago. 
Their  journeyings  and  their  achievements,  their  suc 
cesses  and  their  failures,  have  passed  into  history  and 
need  not  here  be  recounted ;  but  whatever  they  had 
done,  or  failed  to  do,  they  were  at  least  what  the  men 
of  the  Ninth  New  Hampshire  were  now  striving  to  be 
come — soldiers. 

The  first  step,  however,  was  to  find  out  just  how  much 
had  already  been  accomplished.  So  there  was  a  muster 
and  thorough  inspection  of  the  regiment  by  Lieutenant- 
Colonel  Titus,  after  which  drilling  began  in  earnest ; 


i862.]  FROM  CONCORD   TO  SOUTH  MOUNTAIN.  39 

and  it  was  with  many  expressions  of  satisfaction  that 
instead  of  the  shovel  and  the  ax  the  men  resumed  the 
rifle,  and  appeared  once  more,  not  as  gangs  of  work 
men,  but  as  a  regiment  of  soldiers. 

For  purposes  of  drill  the  regiment  was  very  favorably 
situated.  The  camp-ground  was  smooth,  and  hard- 
trodden  by  many  feet.  The  debris  left  by  former  occu 
pants  had  been  cleared  away,  and  everything  arranged 
for  comfort  and  convenience.  The  first,  and  as  it 
proved  the  last,  dress  parade  at  this  camp  was  held  at 
sunset,  on  the  5th,  and  this  was  immediately  followed  by 
supper  from  the  company  cook-houses.  Then,  until 
tattoo,  the  time  was  for  rest  and  recreation,  or  for  reverie, 
which  one  diarist  has  thus  preserved  : 

"The  evening  was  one  of  the  loveliest  I  have  ever 
seen.  For  hours  I  sat,  or  rather  reclined,  in  the  door 
of  our  little  tent,  with  my  companions  lying  around, 
rows  of  white  canvas  dwellings  stretching  in  regular 
streets  on  either  hand,  a  beautiful  landscape  thickly 
dotted  with  camps,  and  other  martial  emblems  on 
every  side,  a  bright,  full  moon  bathing  all  below  in 
purest  silvery  light,  while  gliding  peacefully  through 
the  soft,  deep  azure  of  the  gem-decked  canopy  above ; 
and  as  I  drank  in  the  rare  and  glorious  beauty  of 
nature's  lavish  display,  read  with  introverted  eye  the 
thickly  written  tablets  of  memory,  and  mused  on  our 
present,  to  us  still  novel,  situation,  and  of  what  the 
future  might  have  in  store,  I  thought  of  the  dear 
ones  left  at  home,  of  the  scenes  and  joys  I  had 
experienced  there  ;  and  the  tears  almost  started  to  my 
eyes  unbidden  as  I  thought  again  of  the  probabilities 
of  my  never  seeing  their  renewal.  But  yet  I  am  not 


40  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [September, 

sorry  I  am  here,  and  though  I  would  gladly  see  this 
wicked  war  immediately  closed,  and  hear  the  joyous 
order  to  return,  yet  for  the  sake  of  country  and  my 
country's  honor,  I  am  willing  to  remain,  and  to  perish 
even,  if  so  it  must  be." 

The  mandatory  proverb  to  boast  not  one's  self  of 
to-morrow  is  peculiarly  applicable  to  the  soldier,  for 
he  it  is  of  all  men  that  knoweth  not  what  a  day  may 
bring  forth. 

O 

The  early  morning  greeting  of  the  6th  was  a  renewal 
of  the  order  to  send  out  two  companies  to  dig  rifle-pits — 
those  interminable  intrenchments,  the  cause  of  "curses 
not  loud  but  deep,"  as  deep,  at  least,  as  the  pits  that 
evoked  them.  Two  companies  were  already  on  picket, 
and  two  others  preparing  to  relieve  them.  The  remain 
ing  four  were  being  put  through  their  soldierly  exer 
cises  when,  with  the  promptitude  of  an  "  About  face," 
there  came  a  transformation  not  down  on  the  regi 
mental  programme.  This  was  caused  by  the  receipt 
of  the  following  orders  : 

HEAD-QUARTERS,  MILITARY  DEFENCES, 

SOUTH-WEST  OF  THE  POTOMAC. 

ARLINGTON,  Sept.  6,  1862. 
SPECIAL  ORDERS, 

No.  126. 

The  order  constituting  your  Brigade  is  hereby  Annulled. 
You  will  order  the  Working   parties  and   Pickets  from    Regiments 
under    your    Command,     to    return    to    their    respective    Commands 

immediately. 

By  command  of  Brig.  Gen.  Whipple : 

To  DANIEL  W.  VAN  HORN, 

COL.  FELLOWS,  Capt.  and  A.  A.  D.  C. 

Comd^g  Brigade. 


LIEUT.  S.  HENRY  SPRAGUE,  Co.  F.  CORP.  CHARLES  B.  DAVIS,  Co.  F. 


SERGT.  JAMES  W.  LATHE,  Co.  F.  SERGT.  JAMES  W.  LATHE,  Co.  F. 


1 862.]  FROM  CONCORD  TO  SOUTH  MOUNTAIN.  4! 

HEAD-QUARTERS,  WASHINGTON,  D.  C. 

September  6,  1862. 
SPECIAL  ORDERS, 

No.  3. 

i.  The  following  mentioned  new  Regiments  are  distributed  as  here 
inafter  indicated,  and  will  proceed  to  join  their  respective  Corps  and 
Stations,  viz.  : 

Burnside's  Corps  at  Leesboro,  Six  miles  out  7th  Street. 
1 5th  and  i6th  Conn.  9th  New  Hampshire 

35th  Massachusetts  i;th  and  20 th  Michigan 

***** 

The  Quartermaster's  Department  will  furnish  the  necessary  trans 
portation  to  carry  into  effect  the  foregoing  assignments.  The  regi 
ments  for  Burnside's,  Sumner's,  and  Banks1  Corps  and  Couch's  Divi 
sion  will  march  without  tents  or  knapsacks,  and  be  provided  with 
three-days  provisions  in  Haversacks.  All  the  regiments  will  have 
forty  rounds  of  Ammunition  in  their  Cartridge  Boxes. 
By  Command  of  Major  Genl.  McClellan, 

S.  WILLIAMS, 
Official.          [Signed.]  Asst.  Adft  Genl. 

DANIEL  W.  VAN  HORN,   Capt.  and  A.  A.  D.  C. 
To 

COM.  OFFICER,  gth  New  Hampshire. 

This  second  order,  as  received,  designated  only  the 
regiments  assigned  to  the  Ninth  corps ;  but  in  all, 
thirty-six  new  regiments  were  distributed  among  the 
different  corps  of  the  army,  "and  now,"  writes  Cor 
poral  Lathe,  in  pleased  anticipation  shared  by  all, 
"come  the  hardships  and  the  fame,"  showing  an 
abundant  supply  of  energy,  adaptability,  and  good 
humor, — levers  which  had  the  power  to  lighten  if  not  re 
move  the  burden  of  many  a  heavy  hour  in  this  new,  rough 
manner  of  living.  Indeed,  that  they  were  prominent 
characteristics  among  the  men  of  the  Ninth,  was  shown  in 
the  rapidity  with  which  a  little  practice  developed  and 


42  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [September, 

increased  the  many  contrivances  to  insure  comfort,  in 
spite  of  so  much  that  was  adverse. 

Preparatory  to  this  movement  the  regiment  received 
its  first  issue  of  hard  bread.  Previous  to  this  time  it 
had  been  supplied  with  soft  bread  from  the  government 
bakeries  in  Washington, — "soft  tack"  it  was  called,  as 
distinguished  from  "hard  tack,"  to  which  the  men  now 
had  their  first  introduction,  and  of  which  the  prescribed 
three-days  rations  were  issued  and  stowed  away  in  haver 
sacks. 

Leaving  Quartermaster  Hutchins  in  charge  of  the 
abandoned  camp,  with  its  tents  all  standing,  and  the 
band  and  two  men  detailed  from  each  company  to  guard 
it  and  await  further  orders,  by  three  in  the  afternoon  the 
regiment  was  on  the  move,  in  light  marching  order, — all 
the  lighter  from  the  absence  of  the  prescribed  "forty 
rounds"  in  the  cartridge  boxes. 

Crossing  the  Aqueduct  bridge  and  passing  through 
Georgetown,  the  regiment  rested  for  a  while  in  Wash 
ington.  Then,  having  marched  the  designated  "  six 
miles  out  Seventh  street,"  it  was  discovered  that  Lees- 
boro  was  still  fully  three  miles  away.  The  day  was 
hot,  the  dust  deep,  and  it  was  not  until  about  eight 
o'clock  that  the  regiment  turned  into  a  beautiful 
grove,  appropriately  named  Brightwood.  Here,  upon 
the  ground,  without  other  shelter  than  that  afforded 
by  the  friendly  and  protecting  trees,  the  tired  men 
slept  the  sleep  of  the  soldier. 

This,  their  first  night  by  blazing  bivouac  fires,  was 
one  to  linger  long  in  the  memory  of  those  spared  by  the 
fortunes  of  war,  one  of  whom  thus  recorded  it  at  the 
time  : 


i862.]  FROM  CONCORD  TO  SOUTH  MOUNTAIN.  43 

"The  scene  in  the  early  evening  was  romantic  in  the 
extreme.  It  was  a  warm,  bright,  lovely  night,  but  in 
the  shadow  of  the  trees  dark  enough  to  have  the  numer 
ous  fires,  soon  kindled  by  the  soldiers,  show  to  good 
advantage.  Gleaming  among  these  in  every  direction 
were  the  stacks  of  polished  muskets,  and  scattered 
among  them  the  wearied  men,  wrapped  in  their  blankets 
for  the  night's  repose.  Beyond  the  reach  of  their  rays, 
loomed  up  the  shadows, — hobgoblin,  dark,  and  gloomy 
from  the  contrast,  while  through  the  mixed  canopy  of 
green  and  blue  twinkled  coquettishly  the  glimmering 
stars. 

"All  in  all,  it  was  to  me  at  least  a  weird,  novel,  yet 
interesting  spectacle ;  and  it  was  long  before  the  bland 
ishments  of  Morpheus  could  close  my  eyes  upon  its 
beauty." 

Starting  soon  after  daylight  the  next  morning,  about 
eight  o'clock  the  regiment  encamped,  or  rather  bivou 
acked  again,  in  a  beautiful  grove  at  a  fork  in  the  road 
near  an  old  tumble-down  tavern.  This,  with  two  dwel 
ling-houses  looking  old  and  rusty,  and  the  accompany 
ing  outbuildings  looking  older  and  rustier,  was  Leesboro. 

As  the  head  of  the  column  approached  the  town,  place, 
village,  or  whatever  the  term  by  which  such  a  locality 
might  properly  be  designated,  General  Burnside  was 
met  on  the  road,  and  Colonel  Fellows,  saluting,  at  once 
reported  to  him.  The  general  recognized  him  immedi 
ately  (they  had  been  schoolmates  at  West  Point),  and 
greeting  him  cordially  said, — "You  know  General 
Reno?"  The  colonel  replied  in  the  affirmative;  and 
General  Burnside  said,  "  Report  to  Reno."  This  hav 
ing  been  done,  General  Reno,  in  turn,  directed  Colonel 


44  NINTH  NE  W  HAMPSHIRE.  [September, 

Fellows  to   report  to   Colonel   Nagle,    commanding   the 
First  brigade  of  the  Second  (Sturgis's)  division. 

The  first  necessity,  however,  was  to  get  a  supply  of 
ammunition  to  fit  the  rifles  ;  and  as  none  could  there  be 
had  of  the  right  calibre,  permission  was  obtained  from 
General  Reno  to  send  back  for  it  before  reporting  to 
Colonel  Nagle.  Lieutenant-Colonel  Titus  was  therefore 
detailed  to  go  back  to  Washington  to  get  the  ammuni 
tion,  to  see  to  the  packing  up  and  storing  of  the  surplus 
baggage  left  behind  at  the  old  camp  on  Arlington 
Heights,  and  to  wind  up  and  bring  up  the  rear  gener 
ally — that  is,  the  knapsacks,  overcoats,  and  the  men  left 
in  camp — not  the  stragglers,  for  there  had  been  no  strag 
gling.  The  rear-guard  had  done  its  duty  under  the  eye 
of  the  lieutenant-colonel,  who  had  ridden  much  of  the 
time  in  rear  of  the  column,  and  had  determined  at  the 
outset  that  the  regiment  should  not  fall  into  that  per 
nicious  habit. 

Some  of  the  other  regiments  had  not  been  so  fortu 
nate  in  this  respect,  for  scores  of  stragglers  were  seen 
all  along  the  road.  One  incident  in  this  connection  was 
somewhat  amusing.  Several  regiments  had  followed 
the  Ninth  out  from  Washington,  and  later  in  the  day 
one  of  them,  or  rather  a  melancholy-looking  remnant  of 
it,  went  into  camp  near  by.  One  of  its  lagging,  self- 
deployed  members,  meeting  General  Burnside,  who  had 
ridden  back  along  the  road,  and  making  his  best  salute, 
boldly  inquired  if  he  had  seen  his  regiment  (naming  it) 
anywhere.  "Oh,  yes,"  replied  the  general  blandly, 
and  in  his  characteristic  offhand  manner,  ''you'll  find 
them  all  the  way  from  here  to  Washington  ! " 

So   sudden   and  unexpected  had   been  the   departure 
from  Arlington,  that  some  of  the  officers  were   absent  in 


i862.]  FROM  CONCORD  TO  SOUTH  MOUNTAIN.  45 

the  city.  Adjutant  Chandler,  who  had  iust  purchased 
a  horse,  had  gone  for  the  equipments  and  to  pay  some 
visits,  more  especially  to  meet  his  old  college  classmate, 
Captain  Patterson  (afterwards  Colonel),  of  the  Second, 
and  so  was  dressed  in  his  best.  Starting  to  return,  he 
met  the  regiment,  and  wheeling  his  horse  accompanied 
it.  He  was  the  recipient  of  not  a  little  good-natured 
banter,  for,  like  the  brave  knight  in  the  nursery  riddle, 
he  was 

"All  saddled,  all  bridled,  all  fit  for  the  fight  ;" 

and  it  was  suggested  that  his  bright  new  uniform  was 
just  the  thing,  not  only  for  active  campaigning  but  as  an 
attractive  mark  for  some  hostile  sharpshooter. 

Captains  Alexander  and  Whitfield  were  also  absent, 
their  companies  having  been  detailed  for  fatigue  or 
picket.  Their  experiences  are  related  by  the  former  : 

"  Yesterday,  while  I  was  at  Washington,  the  regiment 
received  orders  to  move.  When  I  returned  to  camp 
about  six  o'clock,  I  found  they  had  left;  the  tents  and 
baggage  were  left  with  two  men  from  each  company,  to 
guard  them  and  assist  the  quartermaster  in  packing  up. 
Three  days'  rations  had  been  given  out.  My  orderly 
sergeant  was  with  me,  and  also  one  captain  who  had 
been  away  during  the  day.  The  quartermaster  told  me 
the  regiment  had  started  for  Leesboro,  about  five  miles 
from  Washington.  I  packed  my  blanket,  took  rations 
in  my  haversack,  and  started.  We  went  to  Washington 
and  inquired  the  way  to  Leesboro.  No  one  knew,  or 
had  ever  heard  of  such  a  place,  but  from  some  persons 
we  met  we  found  the  regiment  went  up  Seventh  street, 
so  we  started.  We  walked  about  five  miles,  but  could 
find  no  trace  of  them.  So  many  regiments  had  passed 


46  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [September, 

and  were  passing  that  no  one  knew  anything  about  it. 
Still,  we  thought  we  were  on  the  right  road,  for  the 
whole  army  seemed  to  be  moving  that  way.  After 
walking  until  about  half-past  eleven,  we  thought  we  had 
better  turn  in  and  wait  until  morning  ;  so  we  found  an 
empty  wagon,  which  we  got  into,  and  slept  finely  until 
six  this  morning  [September  7],  when  we  started.  The 
road  was  full  of  infantry,  artillery,  cavalry,  and  baggage 
wagons.  They  had  been  passing  all  night,  but  we  had 
slept  so  soundly  we  had  not  heard  them.  After  walk 
ing  about  five  miles  further  we  overtook  our  regiment, 
encamped  in  a  fine  grove." 

The  observations  which  follow,  at  a  later  day  would 
hardly  have  been  made. 

"No  one  can  tell  one  day  where  he  may  be  the  next. 
The  old  regiments  say  that  since  they  left  the  Peninsula 
they  have  not  remained  two  nights  in  a  place.  The 
New  Hampshire  Fifth  and  the  battery  do  not  look  much 
as  they  did  when  they  left  the  state.  All  the  troops  I 
have  seen,  with  the  exception  of  the  new  regiments,  are 
ragged,  dirty,  dressed  in  every  kind  of  clothes  imagin 
able,  the  officers  hardly  distinguishable  from  the  men." 

These  officers  were  in  the  same  plight  as  Adjutant 
Chandler, — resplendent  in  new  uniforms,  as  much  out 
of  keeping  with  their  surroundings  and  duties  as  a  Sun 
day  suit  in  a  coal-pit ;  but  the  captain  thus  closes  the 
record  for  the  day  : 

"  I  have  got  me  a  blouse  and  an  old  hat  that  one  of 
the  soldiers  threw  away,  and  feel  now  as  dirty  and 
happy  as  the  rest  of  them." 


1862.]  FROM  CONCORD  TO  SOUTH  MOUNTAIN.  47 

That  they  had  been  assigned  to  Burnside's  corps  was 
soon  known  throughout  the  regiment.  So,  too,  that 
Colonel  Fellows  had  reported  to  General  Burnside,  for 
the  men  on  the  right  had  seen  the  meeting  between  them, 
and  had  noted  the  wave  of  the  hand  by  which  the  gen 
eral  had  designated  the  camping-ground.  So,  when 
later  in  the  day  he  rode  with  his  staff'  past  the  camp, 
the  men  \vere  ready  to  greet  him  with  three  rousing 
cheers,  for  as  a  general  he  was  held  in  especially  high 
regard  in  New  England,  and  at  that  period  of  general 
disaster  all  the  more  so,  by  reason  of  his  recent  suc 
cesses  in  North  Carolina.  They  were  also  ready  in 
position,  for  this  being  in  fact,  as  well  as  in  name,  a  day 
of  rest,  they  had  little  to  do  except  to  range  themselves 
along  the  fence  by  the  roadside,  and  observe  the  almost 
continuous  line  of  passing  troops  and  trains. 

An  important  feature  of  this  procession  was  the  dif 
ferent  generals  with  their  staffs, — riding  usually  at  the 
head  of  their  respective  commands ;  and  prominent 
among  them  was  one,  in  appearance  the  beau  ideal  of 
a  soldier,  so  familiar  in  picture  that,  like  Burnside,  he 
was  immediately  recognized  ;  and  in  silent  but  none  the 
less  deep  admiration,  the  men  saw  pass  before  them  the 
famous  "  Fighting  Joe  Hooker." 

By  the  order  consolidating  the  Army  of  the  Potomac 
and  the  Army  of  Virginia,  issued  by  General  Halleck 
September  5,  General  Hooker  had  been  assigned  to 
the  command  of  the  Fifth  corps  in  place  of  Gen.  Fitz- 
John  Porter,  relieved.  But  the  following  day  he  was 
assigned  by  General  McClellan  to  the  Third  corps  of 
the  Army  of  Virginia,  previously  commanded  by  Gen 
eral  McDowell ;  and  on  this  day  he  issued  his  order 
assuming  command.  This  corps,  upon  the  consolida- 


48  NINTH  NE  W  HAMPSHIRE,  [September, 

tion  of  the   two   armies,  became  the  First  corps  of  the 
Army  of  the  Potomac. 

General  Sturgis,  who  had  previously  served  under 
General  Sigel,  and  who  had  also  been  assigned  by 
General  Halleck  to  the  Fifth  corps,  was  on  this  day 
ordered  by  General  McClellan  to  report  to  General 
Burnside,  and  was  assigned  to  the  Second  division, 
of  which  he  immediately  assumed  command ;  and 
although  by  the  order  he  was  only  "temporarily 
relieved  from  duty  with  Porter's  corps,"  he  thereafter 
remained  permanently  attached  to  the  Burnside  corps. 

General  Reno,  who  had  commanded  the  Ninth  corps 
in  Virginia  under  General  Pope,  now  resumed  the  com 
mand,  and  General  Burnside  was  virtually  in  command 
of  both  the  First  and  Ninth  corps,  which  then  became  the 
right  wing  of  the  army,  although  the  formal  order  so 
assigning  him  was  only  issued  on  the  day  of  the  Battle  of 
South  Mountain. 

On  the  8th,  their  near  neighbors,  the  Thirty-fifth 
Massachusetts,  moved  forward  a  short  distance  to  join 
their  brigade,  but  the  Ninth  New  Hampshire  still 
remained  in  camp,  if  camp  it  could  be  called.  It  was 
rumored  that  the  Confederates  had  crossed  into  Mary 
land,  and  the  road  was  full  of  troops  moving  to  the  front. 
Indeed,  since  the  first  day  at  Arlington,  it  had  been  the 
fortune  of  the  regiment  to  see  others  upon  the  march 
almost  continuously, — first,  towards  Bull  Run  ;  then  in  the 
opposite  direction,  with  increased  and  increasing  numbers, 
until  they  themselves  mingled  with  and  became  a  part  of 
the  flowing,  martial  current;  and  now,  when  they  were 
stranded,  as  it  were,  upon  the  brink,  it  was  still  stream 
ing  on,  until  to  their  unpractised  eyes  it  seemed  as  if  the 
whole  army  was  passing  in  irregular  review. 


i862.]  FROM  CONCORD  TO  SOUTH  MOUNTAIN.  49 

Ammunition  to  fit  the  rifles  was  found  in  the  arsenal  at 
Washington,  but  to  get  that  of  a  special  calibre  for  a 
single  regiment  of  the  army,  at  that  time  of  hurry  and 
pressure,  was  not  accomplished  in  haste,  nor  without 
perseverance  and  some  diplomacy  (exercised  by  Colonel 
Titus)  ;  and  then  it  must  come  through  the  "  regular 
channel,"  the  ordnance  officers  of  the  division  and  bri 
gade.  But  all  difficulties  were  finally  overcome,  and 
it  was  with  a  feeling  of  relief  that  the  wagons  contain 
ing  it  were  seen  moving  up  Seventh  street. 

At  the  old  camp,  however,  there  was  longer  delay  from 
lack  of  transportation.  For  it  must  not  be  forgotten  that 
Stuart,  Mosby,  and  Stonewall  Jackson  had  been  making 
heavy  requisitions  on  our  army  transportation,  for  Con 
federate  use  as  well  as  for  bonfires.  At  any  rate,  the 
quartermaster  was  unable  to  procure  it  for  all  the  bag 
gage  he  was  expected  to  bring  up,  and  word  was  sen 
to  the  regiment  to  that  effect.  Besides,  in  a  general 
order  prescribing  the  amount  of  baggage  to  be  car 
ried,  that  of  the  officers  of  a  company  was  limited  to 
one  small  trunk.  So,  on  the  morning  of  the  c)th, 
several  of  the  officers  returned  for  the  purpose  of 
reducing  the  baggage, — tramping  to  Silver  Spring, 
where  they  hired  a  conveyance  to  Washington. 

Having  repacked  their  baggage,  in  compliance  with 
orders  if  not  to  their  satisfaction,  some  of  the  officers 
wished  to  remain  and  go  to  the  theatre — a  rare  treat  for 
country  boys.  The  lieutenant-colonel  gave  them  per 
mission  to  do  so,  provided  they  would  report  at  Lees- 
boro  by  six  o'clock  the  next  morning.  That  they 
reported  promptly  on  time  was  gratifying  then,  and  it  is 
equally  so  now  to  be  assured,  as  recorded  by  Captain 
Alexander  at  the  time,  that  they  "went  to  Ford's  theatre 

IV 


50  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [September, 

and  listened  to  two  fine  plays,  well  acted, — '  Our  Ameri 
can  Cousin,'  and  '  Dot :  or  The  Cricket  on  the  Hearth.'  " 

The  ammunition  was  received  as  expected,  but  with 
waiting  for  the  baggage,  the  regiment  did  not  start  until 
four  o'clock.  Marching  about  five  miles,  it  bivou 
acked  for  the  night  in  an  orchard  near  Mechanicsville. 
Shelter  tents  had  been  distributed  at  Leesboro,  but  the 
night  being  clear,  and  the  men  having  slept  since 
leaving  Arlington  with  no  other  protection  than  their 
blankets,  very  few  took  the  trouble  to  set  them  up, 
and  they  merely  served  the  convenient  purpose  of  an 
extra  blanket. 

On  the  morning  of  the  nth  they  started  early,  and  at 
dark  turned  into  a  pasture-field  near  the  little  village  of 
Damascus.  Every  day  now  was  adding  some  new 
experience,  which  from  its  very  newness  made  a  more 
lasting  impression  than  events  of  greater  importance  at 
a  later  period.  For  instance,  this  was  the  first  day  of 
marching  in  the  rain  and  mud,  and  disagreeable  and 
tiresome  as  it  was,  it  was  preferable  to  marching  in  the 
heat  and  dust.  But  a  rainy  night  was  a  different  matter, 
and  the  shelter  tent,  which  at  first  had  been  an  object  of 
ridicule,  if  not  of  contempt,  was  now  appreciated ;  and 
the  kennel-like  structures  soon  dotted  the  field. 

There  was  discomfort  enough  at  the  best,  for  though 
the  little  "shelter"  gave  protection  from  the  rain  which 
was  still  falling,  it  could  not  protect  from  that  which  had 
already  fallen,  and  which  soon  saturated  the  clothing  of 
the  men  from  the  ground  on  which  they  lay.  Nor  was 
the  bivouac  otherwise  a  bed  of  roses,  for  the  field  proved 
to  be  a  brier-patch,  and  caused  many  an  emphatic  excla 
mation,  for  a  veritable  virago  could  hardly  have  resented 
an  intrusion  more  pointedly  or  emphatically  ;  but  the  sol- 


i862.]  FROM  CONCORD  TO  SOUTH  MOUNTAIN.  51 

dier's  simple  record  is,  that  "  tired  and  footsore,  we  spread 
our  tents  and  crawled  in  without  making  any  coffee, 
thankful  even  for  the  opportunity  to  lie  down  on  wet  brier 
bushes." 

The  author  of  the  familiar  lines  about  man's  wanting 
but  little  here  below  may  have  been,  as  he  has  been 
called,  an  ''inspired  idiot;"  but  let  the  man  be  a  soldier, 
and  he  will  soon  realize  that  there  is  nothing  of  idiocy  in 
that  sentiment  as  applied  to  what  he  carries  on  the 
march. 

At  Concord,  from  Camp  Colby  to  the  cars,  the  men 
had  marched  bravely  and  unfalteringly ;  the  morning 
was  cool,  the  air  bracing,  the  distance  short,  the  step 
timed  by  the  drum-beat,  and  when  nearing  the  end,  as 
their  unwonted  burdens  began  to  bear  heavily,  thev 
were  marvellously  lightened  by  martial  strains  and  the 
plaudits  of  admiring  thousands ;  few  there  were  who 
would  not  have  dropped  in  the  ranks  rather  than  out  of 
them,  and  the  veriest  plodder  was  carried  along  like  a 
log  by  the  current, — like  the  man  with  the  famous  cork 
leg,  they  could  not  even  stop ;  but  once  in  Washing 
ton,  from  the  station  to  Camp  Chase  all  this  was 
changed,  in  fact,  directly  reversed.  The  morning  was 
hot,  the  air  enervating,  the  distance  doubled,  the  music, 
the  on-looking,  and  the  admiration  at  the  beginning,  and 
not  the  end,  of  the  march  ;  and  when  it  was  all  ended — 
and  long  before — the  men  began  to  stagger  to  the  side 
walk,  and  even  with  those  who  kept  the  ranks  at  every 
step  the  weight  of  the  distended  knapsack  seemed  to 
increase  in  geometrical  ratio,  until  it  bore  down  like  the 
load  of  an  Atlas.  The  men  of  Company  E  hired  a  job 
wagon  to  haul  their  knapsacks  to  camp.  Many  were 
prostrated  by  the  heat, — Sergeant  Rand  of  Company  I, 


52  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [September, 

so  that  he  never  recovered  from  its  effects  ;  and  little 
Charley  Blaisdell  of  Company  F  was  not  the  only  one 
who  "sweat  out  some  of  his  patriotism,"  although  the 
only  one  who  was  heard  to  so  quaintly  express  it.  Not 
half  the  men  were  in  line  at  the  end  of  the  march,  and 
had  it  continued  much  longer  the  body  of  the  regiment 
would  have  entirely  disappeared,  leaving  only  an  inter 
mingled  head  and  tail ;  and  all  because  of  the  knap 
sack. 

On  the  march  to  Leesboro  this  burden  was  left  behind  ; 
and  when  brought  up  with  the  other  baggage  the  men 
w€re  given  their  choice,  to  keep  them  or  send  them  back 
for  storage,  taking  whatever  articles  seemed  necessary 
and  could  be  carried  without  them.  Some  did  the  latter, 
as  they  were  advised,  but  the  most  preferred  to  keep 
them, — they  were  so  convenient  and  their  precious  con 
tents  seemed  so  indispensable.  As  the  result  of  this 
day's  experience,  however,  on  a  fifteen-mile  march, 
nearly  all  availed  themselves  of  the  opportunity  to  send 
them  back  the  next  morning,  and  their  overcoats  as  well. 
They  began  to  realize  how  little  was  absolutely  neces 
sary, — and  with  that  little  rolled  in  the  indispensable  blan 
ket,  and  this  again,  along  with  the  "shelter,"  in  the 
almost  equally  indispensable  rubber  blanket,  the  roll 
twisted,  tied  together  at  the  ends,  and  slung  over  the 
shoulder,  they  were  ready  for  the  march,  comparatively 
unincumbered. 

The  one  small  trunk  for  the  three  officers  of  a  com 
pany  was  also  sent  back  by  order,  so  that  the  line  offi 
cers,  except  those  who  had  servants  to  "  tote"  for  them, 
were  no  better  off  in  respect  to  transportation  than  the 
men.  Indeed,  they  had  a  little  more  to  carry,  for  every 
officer  had  a  whole  tent,  or  two  pieces  of  shelter,  to  him- 


1 862.]  FROM  CONCORD  TO  SOUTH  MOUNTAIN.  53 

self.  There  was,  however,  a  very  great  difference  be 
tween  carrying  a  sword  and  pistol  and  a  gun  and  cart 
ridge  box  with  its  forty  rounds. 

On  the  1 2th  the  Ninth  passed  over  ground  that  had 
been  occupied  the  day  before  by  the  enemy's  pickets, 
and  about  four  in  the  afternoon  halted  at  Newmarket, 
where  it  had  been  ordered  to  join  the  brigade,  only  to 
learn  that  the  brigade  had  gone  forward,  by  reason  of  a 
fight  that  was  in  progress  at  the  river  about  four  miles 
beyond.  This  was  somewhat  exciting,  as  well  as  to 
learn  that  there  had  been  an  actual  skirmish  at  this  very 
place  the  day  before,  between  the  Union  and  the  Confed 
erate  cavalry.  After  waiting  more  than  an  hour  for  an 
ammunition  train  to  pass,  the  regiment  filed  into  the  road 
in  its  rear,  but  were  soon  ordered  to  take  the  side  of  the 
road  to  make  room  for  the  trains  and  the  cavalry. 

Marching  a  column  of  troops  along  the  roadside,  while 
not  to  be  preferred,  can  yet  be  done  without  much  diffi 
culty,  in  the  daytime;  but  at  night  it  is- a  very  different 
matter.  The  sun  had  already  sunk  behind  the  Catoctin 
range,  and  although  the  brigade  was  presumably  not 
far  away — for  a  large  body  of  troops  was  encamped  in 
full  view  just  across  the  Monocacy  in  the  valley  below, — 
Colonel  Fellows  thought  it  best  to  go  no  farther  that 
night.  So  the  regiment  turned  into  a  field  which  had 
served  as  a  hostile  camping-ground  the  previous  night, 
and  from  which  the  enemy  had  retired  but  a  few  hours 
before.  The  reported  fight  at  this  point,  by  reason  of 
which  the  brigade  had  been  ordered  forward,  was  but  an 
artillery  duel  between  the  advance  and  rear  guards  of  the 
respective  armies,  with  no  casualties  reported.  A  house 
near  by  that  had  lost  part  of  its  chimney  and  been  other 
wise  damaged  by  a  bursting  shell,  was  an  object  of  curi- 


54  NINTH  NE  W  HAMPSHIRE.  [September, 

osity ;  and  the  men  began  to  feel  that  serious  business 
was  close  at  hand. 

The  camp  was  on  high  ground  overlooking  the  valley 
below,  and  as  the  thousands  of  camp-fires  gleamed 
faintly  at  first  and  gradually  brightened  in  the  deepening 
twilight,  the  scene,  half  illumined  by  the  moon  riding 
high  in  the  heavens,  was  one  long  to  be  remembered, 
though  no  description  of  it  seems  to  have  been  attempted 
at  the  time.  The  student-soldier,  fresh  from  college,  is 
simply  reminded  of  the  descriptions  given  by  Homer 
and  Xenophon,  while  the  poetic  diarist,  at  the  end  of  a 
hard  day's  march  on  a  ration  of  "but  six  hard-tack," 
and  whose  "supper  consisted  of  half  a  cracker/'  philo 
sophically  concludes  that  "rest  and  sleep  are  better  than 
supper." 

Not  so  with  all,  however.  "How  are  vou  getting 
on,  Howard?"  asks  the  quondam  commissary  of  his 
chevroned  assistant,  who  is  preparing  the  dual  evening 
meal  and  gazing  somewhat  ruefully  at  the  contents  of  a 
tin  cup  simmering  over  a  solitary  blaze  between  two 
rails,  on  which  it  was  resting.  "Well,"  replies  the 
dispenser  of  hard-tack  in  his  characteristically  deliber 
ate  utterance,  so  indicative  of  his  everlasting  relia 
bility,  "I  started  to  make  some  tea,  but  I  guess  it'll 
turn  out  a  poultice."  It  is  scarcely  necessary  to  add 
that  the  worthy  commissary  sergeant,  in  concocting  his 
favorite  beverage  thereafter,  made  the  proportion  of  tea 
leaves  to  water  somewhat  less  than  a  half-pound  to  a 
pint. 

An  amusing  incident  occurred  that  afternoon  while  the 
regiment  was  at  a  halt :  In  a  passing  drove  of  govern 
ment  cattle  was  an  unruly  bull.  He  was  giving  the  dro 
ver  so  much  trouble  that  in  reply  to  some  chaffing  inqui- 


1 862.]  FROM  CONCORD  TO  SOUTH  MOUNTAIN.  55 

ries  he  told  the  boys  they  might  have  him  if  they  could 
catch  him.  No  sooner  said  than  done.  The  turbulent 
beast  was  immediately  surrounded  and  captured,  and  in 
less  than  thirty  minutes  his  inanimate  carcass,  as  neatly 
dressed  as  if  for  some  fashionable  butcher's  shop,  was 
ready  for  dissection  and  distribution  as  an  extra  ration  of 
fresh  beef.  It  is  at  such  times  that  those  innate  qualities 
which  mark  one  as  a  leader  of  men  involuntarily  shine 
forth.  It  was  Bucknam  of  Company  I  and  Reuben 
Wentworth  of  Company  K  who  literally  took  the  bull  by 
the  horns  ;  and  the  former  subsequently  received  his  mer 
ited  reward  by  being  promoted  to  the  nominal  rank  of 
brigade  butcher — an  office  with  certain  gastronomical 
perquisites,  if  no  increase  of  pay. 

September  13,  and  the  regimental  poet,  though  unin 
spired  by  the  sublunary  scene  of  the  previous  night,  thus 
greets  the  morning  : 

"A  beautiful  scene  spreads  out  before  me.  We  are 
on  a  hill.  Below,  and  almost  at  our  feet,  flows  the 
Monocacy,  its  placid  waters  reminding  me  of  my  own 
native  Connecticut.  On  the  other  side  of  the  stream  is 
encamped  a  large  army,  among  which  is  the  brigade  to 
which  we  have  been  assigned,  and  which  we  expect  to 
join  to-day.  In  the  distance  may  be  seen  hills  and 
mountains  not  unlike  those  of  my  own  New  England." 

And  then,  descending  from  the  sublime, — 
"  Had  a  plate  of  boiled  rice  for  breakfast." 

This  valley  of  the  Monocacy,  with  its  unwonted  peo 
pling  and  particularly  its  winding  river, — so  placid  and 
so  reminiscent  in  the  morning — was  evidently  one  of 


56  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [September, 

those  views  to  which  distance  lends  enchantment ;  for  in 
the  evening,  to  the  same  recording  spirit,  it  was  merely 
a  "  creek,"  in  which  he  ''took  a  bath  and  washed  his 
shirt;"  while  another  "took  a  bath  and  washed  his  sin 
gle  shirt  in  the  river,  a  shallow,  stony-bottomed,  dirty- 
looking  stream."  These  were  but  two,  however,  out  of 
hundreds  in  the  regiment,  and  of  many  thousands  in  all, 
who  gladly  availed  themselves  of  the  opportunity  to  do 
the  same. 

Previous  to  this  bathing  and  laundering  the  Ninth  had 
joined  the  brigade.  In  the  morning  the  road  was  clear, 
and  as  the  column  neared  the  bridge,  not  far  away  could 
be  seen  the  head-quarters  of  General  Reno.  Halting  the 
regiment  and  riding  up,  Colonel  Fellows  found  the  gen 
eral  at  breakfast  in  his  tent  with  some  of  his  staff. 
"  Glad  to  see  you,  Colonel.  Report  to  General  Sturgis. 
You  know  Sturgis?"  "Oh,  yes;  I  know  Sturgis," 
replied  Colonel  Fellows.  Crossing  the  massive  stone 
structure  which  spanned  the  Monocacy,  General  Sturgis 
was  found  at  a  little  distance  on  the  other  side.  He  at 
once  recognized  Colonel  Fellows,  gave  him  a  cordial 
greeting,  and  directed  him  to  report  to  Colonel  Nagle, 
as  General  Reno  had  previously  done  at  Leesboro. 
Colonel  Nagle  was  close  at  hand,  the  last  of  the  report 
ing  was  quickly  done,  and  the  Ninth  was  soon  alongside 
the  Sixth  New  Hampshire  and  among  home  friends. 
These  two  regiments,  with  the  Forty-eighth  Pennsylva 
nia  and  the  Second  Maryland,  then  constituted  the  bri 
gade  in  which  the  Ninth  remained  during  its  whole  term 
of  service  (although  its  number  was  afterwards  changed), 
the  First  Brigade  of  the  Second  division. 

Their  friends  and  neighbors  of  the  Sixth  had  some 
thing  to  tell  of  their  recent  experiences  at  the  Second 


i862.]  FROM  CONCORD  TO  SOUTH  MOUNTAIN.  57 

Bull  Run,  where  they  had  suffered  severely.  The  men 
were  also  interested  in  the  details  of  the  operations  of 
the  day  before,  when  our  Kanawha  division  had  the 
advance  at  the  bridge  and  in  Frederick  City. 

About  noon  the  regimental  band  came  up.  Left 
behind  at  Arlington,  they  had  performed  the  duties  of 
camp  guard  (if  they  had  not  observed  its  formalities) 
until  the  9th,  when,  given  a  turn  at  fatigue  duty,  they 
commenced  taking  down  and  packing  up  the  tents. 
Having  finished  this  work  the  next  day,  they  were 
"ordered"  to  rejoin  the  regiment, — by  whom,  does  not 
appear,  but  presumably  by  General  Whipple.  Their 
pilgrimage  is  thus  recorded  by  Bailey?  their  diarist  in  E 
flat: 

"Sept.  10.  We  started  about  two  o'clock,  without 
rations  or  tents,  marching  until  night,  and  stopping  at 
a  country  store,  where  we  succeeded  in  buying  cake 
and  such  trash.  Engaged  lodging  for  the  night, 
eleven  of  us  sleeping  in  three  beds.  Having  marched 
some  ten  miles  in  our  thin  canvas  shoes  on  the  hard, 
uneven  turnpike,  we  are  footsore  and  weary,  and  ready 
to  sleep  anywhere. 

"Sept.  ii.  Once  more  on  the  march  at  seven  o'clock, 
all  keeping  together  throughout  the  day.  At  dark  found 
lodging  in  a  saw-mill.  Everybody's  feet  sore. 

"Sept.  12.  All  started  at  sunrise.  Graves  and  myself 
became  separated  from  the  others,  and  trudged  along 
throughout  the  day.  At  dark,  camped  under  a  tree  near 
the  turnpike.  Having  marched  some  fifteen  miles,  with 
only  a  few  ears  of  green  corn  for  grub,  and  our  feet 
covered  with  blisters,  we  retired  cross  and  ugly. 

"  Sept.  13.  We  were  up  at  daylight  and  on  the  move 


58  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [September, 

again,  marching  until  noon,  when  we  reached  the  army, 
quietly  resting  on  the  banks  of  the  Monocacy  river. 
Found  our  regiment  readily.  The  rest  of  the  band  soon 
arrived." 

The  arrival  of  the  band  was  hailed  with  delight  by  the 
men,  and  was  especially  gratifying  to  Colonel  Fellows. 
Soon  they  were  marshalled  in  front  of  his  quarters,  and 
the  valley  of  the  Monocacy  was  re-echoing  to  the  strains 
of  martial  music. 

At  four  o'clock  the  Ninth  showed  up  in  brigade  line  for 
the  first  time,  and  with  the  advantage  of  numbers  if  not 
experience,  for  it  doubled  the  length  of  the  line.  The 
Ninth  likewise  possessed  the  only  band  in  the  brigade, 
a  fact  which  in  the  march  through  the  city  was  fully 
appreciated. 

A  description  of  this  march  written  by  the  scholarly 
historian  of  the  Second  corps,  which  had  preceded  the 
Ninth  corps,  is  equally  applicable  : 

"Probably  no  soldier  who  entered  Frederick  on  the 
morning  of  the  I3th  will  ever  forget  the  cordial  wel 
come  with  which  the  rescuing  army  was  received  by 
the  loyal  inhabitants.  .  .  .  Here,  in  the  rich  valley 
of  the  Monocacy,  shut  in  by  low  mountains  of  surpassing 
grace  of  outline,  all  nature  was  in  bloom  ;  the  signs  of 
comfort  and  opulence  met  the  eye  on  every  side  ;  while 
as  the  full  brigades,  ...  in  perfect  order  and  all 
the  pomp  of  war,  with  glittering  staffs  and  proud  com 
manders,  .  .  .  pressed  through  the  quaint  and  beau 
tiful  town,  the  streets  resounded  with  applause,  and  from 
the  balcony  and  window  fair  faces  smiled,  and  handker 
chiefs  and  scarfs  waved  to  greet  the  army  of  the  Union. 
Whether  the  ancient  and  apocryphal  Barbara  Frietchie 


i862.]  FROM  CONCORD  TO  SOUTH  MOUNTAIN.  59 

had  sufficiently  recovered  from  the  sentimental  shock  of 
a  poetical  shower  of  imaginary  musket  balls  to  appear 
again  on  this  occasion  may  be  doubted  ;  but  many  an 
honest  and  many  a  fair  countenance  of  patriot  man  and 
patriot  woman  looked  out  upon  the  brave  array  . 
with  smiles  and  tears  of  gratitude  and  joy.  Amid  all 
that  was  desolate  and  gloomy,  amid  all  that  was  harsh 
and  terrible,  in  the  service  these  soldiers  of  the  Union 
were  called  to  render,  that  bright  day  of  September  13, 
1862,  that  gracious  scene  of  natural  beauty  and  waving 
crops,  that  quaint  and  charming  southern  city,  that 
friendly  greeting,  form  a  picture  which  can  never  pass 
out  of  the  memory  of  any  whose  fortune  it  was  to  enter 
Frederick  town  that  day." 

Through  the  city,  beyond  the  city,  along  the  flinty 
and  dusty  pike,  the  line  drags  wearily  along.  The 
Catoctins  grow  nearer ;  the  sun  sinks  behind  them ; 
the  men  clamber  up  the  steep  ascent ;  the  moon  is 
high  above  them ; — and  still  they  plod  along  in 
strange,  weird,  and  ghostly  procession.  They  pass 
the  summit,  and  begin  the  descent.  Far  as  the  eye 
can  reach,  the  spectral  line,  but  dimly  described  in  the 
distance,  stretches  away  in  the  valley  before  them,  as 
before  it  had  lengthened  behind.  No  pen  can  describe 
the  scene;  the  pencil  of  a  Dore  only,  could  depict  it. 
But  midnight  approaches ;  the  line  dissolves  ;  the  men 
stumble  into  an  adjacent  field,  drop  upon  the  restful 
ground, — and  all  is  forgotten. 


CHAPTER  III. 
THE  BATTLE  OF  SOUTH  MOUNTAIN. 

The  Ninth  New  Hampshire  was  on  the  eve  of  its  first 
battle,  and  the  occasion  could  not  fail  to  be  a  momentous 
one,  for  probably  no  other  event  stands  out  more  dis 
tinctly  in  a  soldier's  memory  than  the  time  when  he  first 
takes  the  field  to  do  battle  with  his  fellow-man  for  life 
and  liberty.  Three  weeks  had  not  elapsed  since  the 
regiment  had  left  home  and  friends  behind ;  they  had 
experienced  some  discomforts,  but  the  actual  hardships 
of  an  active  campaign  were  yet  to  be  realized.  To-night 
they  lie  wrapped  in  heavy  slumber,  a  new  and  untried 
regiment ;  to-morrow,  with  its  baptism  of  fire  and  blood, 
will  come  and  do  its  work,  and  when  the  Ninth  again 
lie  down  to  rest  it  will  be  with  the  proud  consciousness 
that  they  have  proved  themselves  men. 

It  is  to  be  remembered  that  the  Ninth  regiment  was 
only  a  cog  in  one  of  the  great  wheels  of  the  machinery 
of  war,  and  to  more  definitely  locate  its  positions  and 
*  comprehend  the  magnitude  of  the  operations  in  which  it 
bore  a  part,  a  general  understanding  of  the  movements 
of  the  army  is  necessary,  to  fully  realize  what  it  meant 
to  be  even  a  factor  in  the  great  whole. 

By  the  order  of  September  6  the  Ninth  regiment  had 
been  assigned  to  Burnside's  corps,  and  was  now  attached 
to  the  First  brigade  of  the  Second  division  of  the  famous 
Ninth  corps — the  4t  wandering  Ithacans"  of  the  Rebel 
lion,  the  corps  "  whose  dead  lie  buried  in  seven  states" — 


1 862.]  THE  BATTLE  OF  SOUTH  MOUNTAIN.  6 1 

the  corps  in  which  the  Ninth  New  Hampshire  won  its 
laurels  at  South  Mountain,  Antietam,  and  Fredericks- 
burg,  sharing  its  fortunes  at  Newport  News  and  in  Cen 
tral  Kentucky,  at  the  siege  and  capture  of  Vicksburg 
and  Jackson,  in  the  perilous  march  across  the  Cumber 
land  mountains,  through  all  its  wanderings  and  vicissi 
tudes  until,  in  the  spring  of  1865,  Lee  surrendered  to 
Grant  and  the  Rebellion  was  at  an  end. 

The  army  commanded  by  General  McClellan  in  the 
early  days  of  September  comprised  the  First  corps, 
under  General  Hooker ;  the  Second  corps,  under  Sum- 
ner ;  one  division  of  the  Fourth  corps,  under  Couch, 
which  was  attached  to  the  Sixth  corps,  under  Franklin  ; 
the  Ninth  corps,  under  Reno,  and  the  Twelfth  corps, 
under  Mansfield.  The  First  and  Ninth  corps  formed 
the  right  wing,  under  General  Burnside ;  the  Second 
and  Twelfth  corps,  the  centre,  under  General  Sum- 
ner;  and  the  commands  under  General  Franklin,  the 
left  wing.  To  these  was  added,  on  September  n, 
the  Fifth  corps,  under  General  Fitz-John  Porter. 

Opposed  to  these  forces  was  the  Confederate  command 
of  General  Lee,  which  consisted  of  Longstreet's  division, 
of  twenty  brigades  ;  Jackson's  division,  of  fourteen  bri 
gades  ;  D.  H.  Hill's  division,  of  five  brigades;  the 
unattached  brigade  of  Evans,  and  a  considerable  force 
of  cavalry  and  artillery. 

In  his  official  report  dated  March  6,  1863,  General 
Lee  thus  states  the  reasons  for  his  movements  at  this 
stage  of  the  campaign  : 

"The  armies  of  Generals  McClellan  and  Pope  had 
now  been  brought  back  to  the  point  from  which  they 
set  out  on  the  campaigns  of  the  spring  and  summer. 


62  NINTH  NE  W  HAMPSHIRE.  [September, 

The   objects   of   those   campaigns    had   been   frustrated, 
and   the  designs  of  the   enemy  on   the   coast  of  North 
Carolina    and    in    western    Virginia    thwarted    by    the 
withdrawal   of  the   main  body  of   his  forces   from  those 
regions.      North-eastern    Virginia    was    freed  from    the 
presence  of  Federal    soldiers   up   to    the    intrenchments 
of  Washington,  and    soon  after  the  arrival  of  the  army 
at    Leesburg  information  was  received   that  the   troops 
which    had    occupied   Winchester    had    retired    to    Har 
per's  Ferry  and  Martinsburg.      The  war  was  thus  trans 
ferred    from    the  interior  to    the   frontier,   and    the   sup 
plies  of  rich   and    productive  districts    made    accessible 
to   our  army.     To  prolong   a  state   of   affairs   in   every 
way  desirable,   and  not  to   permit  the  season  for  active 
operations  to  pass  without  endeavoring  to  inflict  further 
injury  upon  the  enemy,  the  best  course  appeared  to  be 
the  transfer  of  the  army  into  Maryland.     Although  not 
properly   equipped    for  invasion,    lacking   much   of   the 
material  of  war,  and  feeble  in  transportation,  the  troops 
poorly  provided  with  clothing,   and   thousands   of  them 
destitute    of    shoes,    it    was   yet   believed   to    be    strong 
enough  to  detain  the  enemy  upon  the  northern  frontier 
until  the  approach  of  winter  should  render  his  advance 
into  Virginia  difficult,  if  not  impracticable.     The  condi 
tion  of  Maryland  encouraged   the  belief  that  the  pres 
ence    of    our    army,    however    inferior    to    that    of    the 
enemy,   would    induce    the   Washington    government  to 
retain   all   its  available  force  to  provide  against  contin 
gencies  which  its  course  toward  the  people  of  that  state 
gave  it  reason  to  apprehend.     At  the  same  time  it  was 
hoped   that  military  success  might  afford  us   an   oppor 
tunity  to   aid   the   citizens   of   Maryland    in   any   efforts 
they  might  be  disposed  to  make  to  recover  their  liber- 


i862.]  THE  BATTLE  OF  SOUTH  MOUNTAIN.  63 

ties.  The  difficulties  that  surrounded  them  were  fully 
appreciated,  and  we  expected  to  derive  more  assistance 
in  the  attainment  of  our  object  from  the  just  fears  of  the 
Washington  government,  than  from  active  demonstration 
on  the  part  of  the  people, — unless  success  should  enable 
us  to  give  them  assurance  of  continued  protection. 

"Influenced  by  these  considerations,  the  army  was 
put  in  motion,  D.  H.  Hill's  division,  which  had  joined  us 
on  the  2d,  being  in  advance,  and  between  September 
4  and  7  crossed  the  Potomac  at  the  fords  near  Leesburg, 
and  encamped  in  the  vicinity  of  Fredericktown. 

"  It  was  decided  to  cross  the  Potomac  east  of  the  Blue 
Ridge,  in  order,  by  threatening  Washington  and  Balti 
more,  to  cause  the  enemy  to  withdraw  from  the  south 
bank,  where  his  presence  endangered  our  communica 
tions  and  the  safety  of  those  engaged  in  the  removal  of 
our  wounded  and  the  captured  property  from  the  late 
battle-fields.  Having  accomplished  this  result,  it  was 
proposed  to  move  the  army  into  western  Maryland, 
establish  our  communications  with  Richmond  through 
the  valley  of  the  Shenandoah,  and  by  threatening  Penn 
sylvania  induce  the  enemy  to  follow,  and  thus  draw  him 
from  his  base  of  supplies." 

It  was  this  proposed  plan  of  operations  which  had  so 
aroused  the  North  and  led  to  the  sending  to  the  front  of 
all  the  available  troops.  Events  proved,  however,  that 
General  Lee  was  mistaken  in  at  least  part  of  his  prem 
ises. 

The  yth  of  September  found  the  Southern  army  all  on 
Maryland  soil,  but  when,  on  the  following  day,  from  his 
head-quarters  at  Frederick,  General  Lee  issued  a  procla 
mation  to  the  people  of  the  state,  assuming  the  tone  of  a 


64  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [September, 

liberator  and  inviting  them  to  espouse  the  cause  of  the 
South,  the  response  was  by  no  means  encouraging,  for 
the  people  of  the  state  at  large  were  not  desirous  of  see 
ing  their  fair  fields  laid  waste  by  the  tramp  of  opposing 
armies,  however  strong  might  be  their  sympathy  with 
either  side. 

It  was  on  the  pth  of  September  that  General  Lee 
issued  the  famous  "lost  order,"  the  finding  of  which 
enabled  General  McClellan  to  check,  if  he  could  not 
forestall,  the  plans  of  the  Confederate  commander. 
How  the  order  was  found,  and  the  manner  in  which  it 
reached  General  McClellan,  has  been  graphically  and 
officially  told  by  Brevet  Brigadier-General  Silas  Col- 
grove  : 


t  k 


The  Twelfth  Army  corps  arrived  at  Frederick, 
Maryland,  about  noon  on  the  i3th  of  September,  1862. 
The  Twenty-seventh  Indiana  volunteers,  of  which  I  was 
colonel  at  that  date,  belonged  to  the  Third  brigade, 
First  division,  of  that  corps. 

"  We  stacked  arms  on  the  same  ground  that  had  been 
occupied  by  Gen.  D.  H.  Hill's  division  the  evening 
before. 

"Within  a  very  few  minutes  after  halting,  the  order 
was  brought  to  me  by  First  Sergeant  John  M.  Bloss  and 
Private  B.  W.  Mitchell,  of  Company  F,  Twenty-seventh 
Indiana  volunteers,  who  stated  that  it  was  found  by  Pri 
vate  Mitchell  near  where  they  had  stacked  arms.  When 
I  received  the  order  it  was  wrapped  around  three  cigars, 
and  Private  Mitchell  stated  that  it  was  in  that  condition 
when  found  by  him. 

"  General  A.  S.  Williams  was  in  command  of  our 
division.  I  immediately  took  the  order  to  his  head-quar- 


SERGT.  ALBERT  B.  STEARNS,  Co.  E.  CORP.  ELMER  BRAGG,  Co.  E. 


CORP.  CHARLES  O.  HURLBUTT,  Co.  E.  CORP.  LEWIS  BROCKLEBANK,  Co.  E. 


1 862.]  THE  BATTLE  OF  SOUTH  MOUNTAIN,  65 

ters,    and    delivered  it  to  Col.   E.   S.  Pittman,   General 
Williams's  adjutant-general. 

''The  order  was  signed  by  Colonel  Chilton,  General 
Lee's  adjutant-general,  and  the  signature  was  at  once 
recognized  by  Colonel  Pittman,  who  had  served  with 
Colonel  Chilton  at  Detroit,  Mich.,  before  the  war,  and 
was  acquainted  with  his  handwriting.  It  was  at  once 
taken  to  General  McClellan's  head-quarters  by  Colonel 
Pittnian.  It  was  a  general  order  giving  directions  for  the 
movement  of  Lee's  entire  army,  designating  the  route  and 
objective  point  of  each  corps.  Within  an  hour  after  find 
ing  the  despatch,  General  McClellan's  whole  army  was  on 
the  move,  and  the  enemy  were  overtaken  the  next  day, 
the  I4th,  at  South  Mountain,  and  the  battle  of  that  name 
was  fought." 

So  clearly  does  this  order  map  out  the  line  of  opera 
tions  for  the  next  few  days,  that  it  is  here  inserted  in  full  : 

HEAD-QUARTERS  ARMY  OF  NORTHERN  VIRGINIA, 

September  Qth,  1862. 
SPECIAL  ORDERS, 

No.  191. 

The  army  will  resume  its  march  to-morrow,  taking  the  Hagerstown 
road.  General  Jackson's  command  will  form  the  advance,  and  after 
passing  Middletown,  with  such  portions  as  he  may  select,  take  the 
route  towards  Sharpsburg,  cross  the  Potomac  at  the  most  convenient 
point,  and  by  Friday  night  take  possession  of  the  Baltimore  &  Ohio 
railroad,  capture  such  of  the  enemy  as  may  be  at  Martinsburg,  and 
intercept  such  as  may  attempt  to  escape  from  Harper's  Ferry. 

General  Longstreet's  command  will  pursue  the  same  road  as  far  as 
Boonsboro',  where  it  will  halt  with  the  reserve,  supply  and  baggage 
trains  of  the  army. 

General  McLaws,  with  his  own  division  and  that  of  Gen.  R.  H.  A. 
Anderson,  will  follow  General  Longstreet ;  on  reaching  Middletown  he 
will  take  the  route  to  Harper's  Ferry,  and  by  Friday  morning  possess 
v 


66  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [September, 

himself  of  Maryland  Heights,  and  endeavor  to  capture  the  enemy  at 
Harper's  Ferry  and  vicinity. 

General  Walker,  with  his  division,  after  accomplishing  the  object  in 
which  he  is  now  engaged,  will  cross  the  Potomac  at  Cheek's  Ford, 
ascend  its  right  bank  to  Lovettsville,  take  possession  of  Loudon 
Heights,  if  practicable,  by  Friday  morning,  Keyes's  Ford  on  his  left, 
and  the  road  between  the  end  of  the  mountain  and  the  Potomac  on  his 
right.  He  will,  as  far  as  practicable,  co-operate  with  General  McLaws 
and  General  Jackson  in  intercepting  the  retreat  of  the  enemy. 

Gen.  D.  H.  HilPs  division  will  form  the  rear  guard  of  the  army, 
pursuing  the  road  taken  by  the  main  body.  The  reserve  artillery, 
ordnance,  and  supply  trains,  etc.,  will  precede  General  Hill. 

General  Stuart  will  detach  a  squadron  of  cavalry  to  accompany  the 
commands  of  Generals  Longstreet,  Jackson,  and  McLaws,  and,  with 
the  main  body  of  the  cavalry,  will  cover  the  route  of  the  army  and 
bring  up  all  stragglers  that  may  have  been  left  behind. 

The  commands  of  Generals  Jackson,  McLaws,  and  Walker,  after 
accomplishing  the  objects  for  which  they  have  been  detached,  will  join 
the  main  body  of  the  army  at  Boonsboro1  or  Hagerstown. 

Each  regiment  on  the  march  will  habitually  carry  its  axes  in  the  reg 
imental  ordnance-wagon,  for  use  of  the  men  at  their  encampments,  to 

procure  wood,  etc. 

By  command  of  General  R.  E.  Lee. 

R.  H.  CHILTON,  Assistant  Adjutant-General. 
Major-General  D.  H.  HILL,  commanding  division. 

This  order  was  afterwards  modified  by  General  Lee  so 
as  to  place  Longstreet  at  Hagerstown,  thirteen  miles 
beyond. 

It  was  on  the  basis  of  a  knowledge  of  the  enemy's 
movements  furnished  by  this  order  that  the  following 
despatch  was  penned  : 

HEAD-QUARTERS,  FREDERICK,  September  13,  1862,  12  m. 

(Received  2  =35  a.  m.,  September  14.) 
To  THE  PRESIDENT: 

I  have  the  whole  rebel  force  in  front  of  me,  but  am  confident,  and 
no  time  shall  be  lost.  I  have  a  difficult  task  to  perform,  but  with 


i862.]  THE  BATTLE  OF  SOUTH  MOUNTAIN.  67 

God's  blessing  will  accomplish  it.  I  think  Lee  has  made  a  gross  mis 
take,  and  that  he  will  be  severely  punished  for  it.  The  army  is  in 
motion  as  rapidly  as  possible.  I  hope  for  a  great  success  if  the  plans 
of  the  rebels  remain  unchanged. 

We  have  possession  of  Catoctin.  I  have  all  the  plans  of  the  rebels, 
and  will  catch  them  in  their  own  trap  if  my  men  are  equal  to  the  emer 
gency.  I  now  feel  that  I  can  count  on  them  as  of  old.  All  forces  of 
Pennsylvania  should  be  placed  to  co-operate  at  Chambersburg.  My 
respects  to  Mrs.  Lincoln.  Received  most  enthusiastically  by  the 
ladies.  Will  send  you  trophies. 

All  well,  and  with  God's  blessing  will  accomplish  it. 

GEO.  B.  MCCLELLAN. 

How  far  General  Lee  succeeded  in  carrying  out  his 
plans,  can  be  quickly  told.  When  the  Confederate  com 
mand  under  Jackson  had  crossed  the  river,  they  seized 
the  railroad  at  Point  of  Rocks.  General  White,  who  was 
stationed  at  Martinsburg,  at  once  fell  back  with  his  forces 
to  Harper's  Ferry.  General  Miles,  who  was  in  command 
of  the  garrison  at  this  point,  though  deprived  of  com 
munication  with  Washington  by  this  move  of  the  enemy, 
and  though  strongly  advised  by  members  of  his  staff  to 
abandon  the  position,  determined  to  hold  the  fort  as  long 
as  possible,  in  the  hope  of  receiving  speedy  re-enforce 
ments  as  soon  as  his  perilous  situation  was  discovered. 
But  Lee,  who  was  determined  to  capture  this  valuable 
prize,  inasmuch  as  it  would  give  him  the  opportunity  of 
paroling  a  force  of  12,000  men,  thus  disabling  the  Army 
of  the  Potomac  so  as  to  cripple  their  operations  for  the 
winter,  as  well  as  to  gain  possession  of  the  abundant 
store  of  supplies,  of  which  his  ragged  and  hungry  army 
stood  greatly  in  need,  sent  Jackson  with  a  large  force  to 
cross  the  Potomac  in  front  of  Sharpsburg  and  invest  the 
place  from  the  Virginia  side,  while  McLaws  co-operated 
from  the  Maryland  side.  The  move  was  a  complete 


68  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [September, 

success,  as  the  position  was  capable  of  no  effective 
defence  against  the  batteries  on  the  surrounding  heights. 
The  firing  did  not  cease,  however,  until  ten  o'clock  on 
the  morning  of  the  I5th,  when,  General  Miles  having 
been  mortally  wounded,  any  further  defence  was  speed 
ily  given  up. 

It  is  easy  to  see,  in  the  light  of  later  events,  what  might 
have  been  accomplished  had  General  McClellan  acted  as 
well  as  he  had  planned,  in  view  of  the  direct  knowledge 
he  possessed  of  General  Lee's  positions  and  intentions. 
A  quick  movement  of  his  army  to  the  left,  and  the  sur 
render  of  Harper's  Ferry  would  not  have  been  necessary  ; 
the  Maryland  campaign  on  which  Lee  had  built  so  many 
fair  hopes  would  have  been  at  an  end,  for  with  McLaws 
disabled  it  would  have  been  hard  for  him  to  reorganize 
his  army,  and  the  whole  tenor  of  events  would  have 
been  changed.  But  history  deals  not  with  what  might 
have  been  but  what  was.  If,  through  General  McClel- 
lan's  over-cautiousness,  the  golden  opportunity  was  lost, 
then  on  his  shoulders  must  rest  the  responsibility. 

While  Jackson  and  McLaws  were  thus  engaged  at 
Harper's  Ferry,  General  Lee,  who  had  withdrawn  the 
bulk  of  his  army  to  Sharpsburg,  with  a  view  to  check 
ing  the  further  advance  of  McClellan  as  much  as  possi 
ble,  posted  Gen.  D.  H.  Hill,  with  his  own  division  re-en 
forced  by  two  of  Longstreet's  divisions,  at  Turner's  Gap 
of  the  South  Mountain;  while  at  Crampton's  Gap,  near 
Burkittsville,  a  portion  of  McLaws's  force  was  stationed. 
General  Franklin,  who  was  sent  against  the  latter  force 
with  the  Sixth  corps  on  the  afternoon  of  the  i5th,  after 
some  three  hours  of  sharp  though  not  heavy  firing,  car 
ried  the  pass. 

It  was  at  Turner's  Gap,  six  miles  to  the  northward, 


i862.]  THE  BATTLE  OF  SOUTH  MOUNTAIN.  69 

where  the  principal  struggle  in  the  Battle  of  South 
Mountain  occurred,  the  assault  being  made  by  the 
right  wing  of  the  army,  under  General  Burnside. 
From  early  morning  till  late  at  night  there  was  a 
sharp  struggle  and  a  stubborn  defence  for  the  posses 
sion  of  the  rocky  heights.  In  General  Reno's  first 
attack  the  crest  of  the  mountain  held  by  the  Confed 
erate  forces  under  General  Garland  was  wrested  from 
them  before  noon ;  but  here  the  Union  advance  was 
checked,  till  Hooker's  corps,  climbing  the  mountain 
sides  in  the  face  of  strong  opposition,  secured  a  posi 
tion  which  commanded  the  pass  proper.  Just  as  the 
Union  forces  were  in  a  position  to  secure  the  fruits  of 
their  persistent  efforts,  night  came  on,  and  in  the  morn 
ing  the  enemy  had  withdrawn,  having  lost  heavily  in 
casualties  and  prisoners.  The  Stars  and  Stripes  waved 
from  the  conquered  heights,  but  the  gallant  leader  of  the 
Ninth  corps  was  among  the  fallen. 

***** 

The  Sabbath  dawned,  and  the  Ninth  New  Hampshire, 
roused  from  the  shelterless  bivouac  of  the  night,  found 
themselves  in  a  beautiful  valley  midway  between  two 
mountain  ranges — the  Catoctin  on  the  east,  and  South 
Mountain  on  the  west, — and  about  three  miles  from  either 
summit.  Near  by  was  the  village  of  Middletown,  one  of 
the  few  places  to  be  found  with  a  name  appropriate  to  its 
position  and  surroundings,  and  just  beyond  could  be  seen 
the  Catoctin  creek,  winding  its  serpentine  course  along  the 
valley  to  which  it  gives  the  name. 

Two  beeves  "on  the  hoof"  was  the  regimental  ration 
as  drawn  by  the  commissary,  though  it  did  not  long 
remain  in  that  form  ;  and  soon,  for  the  ten  companies 
there  were  ten  separate  piles  of  fresh  beef,  presumably 


7<D  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [September, 

equal,  and  ready  for  distribution  in  time  for  an  early 
Sunday  morning  breakfast.  It  wasn't  quite  up  to 
"mother's  brown  bread  and  beans,"  to  be  sure;  but 
cooked  by  a  sort  of  compromise  process  between  a 
roast  and  a  broil,  with  fence  rails  for  fuel  and  ram 
rods  for  toasting-forks — their  first  practical  use — even 
the  least  desirable  portions  were  a  very  acceptable  addi 
tion  to  a  breakfast  of  hard-tack  and  coffee  for  a  hun 
gry  man, — and  who  on  that  momentous  morning  was 
not  hungry? 

The  regiment  was  under  orders  to  be  ready  to  move 
at  a  moment's  notice,  an  order  emphasized  by  the  boom 
ing  of  cannon  from  the  mountain-side  to  the  westward, 
where  their  white  puffs  of  smoke  could  be  seen  in 
increasing  frequency.  Aids  were  galloping,  signal 
flags  waving,  and  troops  hurrying  forward.  At  first 
the  men  waited  and  watched  in  expectancy  and  with 
suppressed  excitement,  but  as  the  hours  passed  and 
the  cannon's  calls  grew  less  frequent,  they  began  to 
think  they  would  not  be  needed. 

Mid-day  approached,  and  dinner  was  eaten.  Then 
away  to  the  south-west  were  seen  the  tell-tale  puffs 
which  preceded  the  now  familiar  sounds,  the  lines  of 
smoke  rising  from  the  side  and  summit  of  the  mountain 
marking  the  spot  where  Franklin,  with  the  Sixth  corps, 
at  Crampton's  Gap,  was  forcing  his  way  upward. 

At  two  o'clock  came  the  long  expected  order,  and 
along  with  its  brigade  and  division  the  Ninth  moved 
forward.  Through  the  village,  silent  and  deserted ; 
past  long  lines  of  veteran  troops  resting  by  the  road 
side  ;  wading  a  creek  near  the  still  smoking  timbers  of 
some  buildings  fired  by  exploding  shells  and  of  the 
bridge  burned  by  the  Confederates  the  day  before,  the 


i862.]  THE  BATTLE  OF  SOUTH  MOUNTAIN.  71 

column  advanced.  Then,  after  leaving  the  turnpike, 
filing  to  the  left  across  the  fields,  and  wading  or  jump 
ing  a  small  running  stream,  the  column  is  halted,  and 
for  the  first  time  the  Ninth  regiment  men  receive 
orders  to  load.  Some  have  never  before  loaded  a  gun, 
few  have  ever  loaded  with  a  ball  cartridge,  and  many 
must  be  shown  the  whole  process.  The  storm  of  battle 
is  bursting  upon  the  right,  where  Hooker  has  attacked, 
and  the  troops  sweep  over  a  ridge,  a  sort  of  foot-hill, 
clamber  up  the  steep  ascent,  and  are  halted  near  the 
summit. 

Just  at  the  right  Burnside  is  seen  superintending  a  bat 
tery,  and  himself  sighting  one  of  the  guns.  It  is  Benja 
min's  battery  of  twenty-pound  rifles,  his  pets  and  his 
pride.  Some  are  pointed  toward  the  mountain  pass  on 
the  right,  aimed  at  a  battery  in  position  beyond  the  turn 
pike.  It  is  a  mile  and  a  half  away,  and  scarcely  distin 
guishable  with  the  naked  eye.  The  others  are  pointed 
towards  the  summit,  directly  in  front.  There  is  time  to 
note  the  marked  contrast  between  the  energetic  loading 
and  firing  and  the  calm  deliberation  of  the  aim  ;  and  as 
their  belching  thunder  mingles  with  the  roar  of  battle, 
which  now  extends  for  two  miles  along  the  mountain 
side  and  crest,  the  sound  is  as  thrilling  as  the  sight  is 
inspiring,  for  nothing  so  stirs  the  blood  of  the  true  sol 
dier  as  the  cannon's  voice.  Colonel  Fellows,  dismount 
ing,  goes  to  General  Burnside  and  converses  for  a 
moment.  "  I  want  you  to  take  that  battery,"  says  the 
general,  pointing  to  the  crest  on  the  left  of  the  road  in 
front,  which  led  directly  to  the  summit.  Even  while  he 
is  speaking  the  line  is  again  advancing,  and  soon  files 
to  the  right  into  the  old  Sharpsburg  road.  A  mounted 
officer  rides  down  the  column.  "We're  licking 'em  !" 


72  NINTH  ArEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [September, 

is  his  reply  to  eager  questioners.  Now  wounded  men 
are  met — some  in  ambulances,  others  carried  on  stretch 
ers,  silent  and  pale,  and  some  with  blood-stained  cloth 
ing.  But  not  all  are  silent.  There  is  one  whose  youth 
ful  features,  not  yet  bronzed  by  exposure,  are  doubly 
pale.  Lying  upon  a  stretcher,  he  is  borne  on  the  shoul 
ders  of  comrades.  Mere  boy  as  he  seems,  his  voice  has 
all  the  electric  thrill  of  command  as  he  shouts  :  "  Go  in, 
boys  !  They  can't  stand  the  bayonet  !*'  and  far  down 
the  column,  above  the  din  of  battle,  again  and  again 
that  ringing  voice  is  heard,  as  with  the  exultation  of 
victory. 

The  regiment  is  half  way  up  the  summit  when  an  aid 
meets  them:  "Colonel,  hurry  up  those  men;  they  are 
needed  immediately."  "  Double  quick  !  "  is  the  response  ; 
and  tugging,  sweating,  and  straining  every  nerve  and 
muscle  under  their  heavy  loads,  the  men  do  their  utmost 
to  obey.  The  cracking  rattle  of  musketry  grows  nearer 
and  nearer,  the  bellowing  guns  are  louder,  and  just  over 
their  heads  is  heard  the  swift-sailing  song  of  the  Minie, 
with  its  devilish  diminuendo.  Now  they  are  nearing  the 
line  of  smoke  which  rises  from  the  mountain-side,  and 
passing  a  low,  weather-stained  house  on  the  left,  a  sharp 
turn  through  a  lane  brings  them  into  the  field  beyond. 
"Halt!  Front!"  and  they  are  facing  down  the  moun 
tain,  their  backs  to  the  enemy.  The  mounted  officers  are 
now  on  foot.  There  is  no  time  to  change  the  formation. 
"Face  by  the  rear  rank!  About  face  !"  and  now  they 
are  looking  toward  the  summit,  the  rear  rank  in  front. 
The  bullets  are  singing  nearer  now — "Zip!  Zip!"  and 
they  are  gone  before  the  strained  ears  can  even  catch 
the  sound.  "Forward!"  and  in  regimental  line  the 
men  move  up  the  slope.  Here  and  there  a  man  drops 


i862.]  THE  BATTLE  OF  SOUTH  MOUNTAIN.  73 

his  rifle,  clasps  a  hand  to  his  leg,  arm,  or  side,  and  falls 
to  the  rear,  or  sinks  to  the  ground.  But  no  one  minds 
them  ;  no  one  minds  the  bullets  now,  or  even  the  larger 
missiles  that  go  screaming  over  their  heads.  Orrly  when 
a  shell  drops  in  the  ranks,  or  explodes  in  their  very  faces, 
is  there  a  break  in  the  line,  and  then  an  officer  springs 
to  the  place  with  a  quick  command,  the  gap  is  closed, 
and  without  a  pause  even,  the  line  moves  on.  "  See  the 
rebels  run!"  some  one  exclaims;  and  from  behind  a 
stone  wall  just  in  front,  they  are  seen  to  rise  and  quickly 
scamper  away  into  the  corn-field  beyond.  "Fix  bayo 
nets  !  "  and  at  the  word  near  nine  hundred  sabre  bavo- 

J 

nets  flash  from  their  scabbards,  and  with  an  ominous  rat 
tle  there  is  a  long  line  of  bristling  steel.  "Charge  and 
cheer,  boys!"  commands  the  colonel;  "Yell,  boys!" 
shouts  the  lieutenant-colonel,  and  both  are  obeyed. 
There  is  little  thought  now  of  keeping  in  regimental  line. 
The  game  is  flushed  and  on  the  run,  and  the  Ninth  are 
the  hunters.  Blanket-rolls  are  flung  from  the  shoul 
ders  ;  knapsacks,  too,  the  few  that  have  been  kept. 
Even  haversacks  and  canteens  are  given  a  toss — no  mat 
ter  where  !  No  thought  of  their  precious  contents  now  ; 
no  thought  of  anything  but  to  drive,  to  capture,  or  to 
kill.  Over  the  wall !  through  the  cornfield  !  over  a  fence 
from  behind  which  the  Confederates  start  and  run  like 
frightened  deer !  through  the  wood  that  crowns  the 
height !  across  the  road  and  into  a  scrubby  growth 
among  the  scattered  trees  beyond  !  Such  is  the  eager 
and  exciting  chase.  The  Ninth  has  reached  the 
slope,  but  no  enemy  is  in  sight — they  have  outrun 
their  pursuers. 

The   command  to   "  Halt"  and  "get  into   line"  was 
repeated  throughout  the  scattered  regiment,  for  all  for- 


74  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [September, 

mation  had  been  lost  in  the  mad  pursuit.  The  regiment 
was  quickly  reformed ;  not  as  when  it  started  on  the 
charge  up  the  mountain,  end  for  end  and  hind  side 
before,  but  the  men  were  brought  from  the  left  into  the 
more  open  ground,  and  the  companies  took  their  proper 
places  in  line.  The  sound  of  firing  had  ceased,  and  ex 
cept  their  own  men,  not  a  living,  moving  human  being 
was  in  sight.  What  was  to  be  done?  The  line  of  battle 
had  been  left  a  quarter  of  a  mile  behind.  Whether  it 
was  nearer  now,  whether  anybody  was  nearer,  except 
the  enemy,  no  one  knew.  Plainly  the  regiment  must  go 
back;  but  how?  There  was  no  time  for  hesitation,  and 
in  an  instant  came  the  order,  "By  column  of  company 
to  the  rear !"  and  in  perfect  order,  as  steadily  as  on 
parade,  the  regiment  retired  across  Wise's  field. 

Near  the  eastern  edge  of  this  field  it  swung  into  line 
in  front  of  the  other  regiments  of  the  division,  which  had 
advanced  to  that  point.  The  men  rested  on  their  arms 
for  a  few  minutes,  and  then  General  Reno,  riding  up  to 
Colonel  Fellows  as  he  was  standing  at  the  left  of  the  regi 
ment,  shook  him  warmly  by  the  hand,  congratulated  him 
upon  what  his  men  had  done,  and  directed  him  to  fall  back 
a  little,  as  other  regiments  were  moving  up.  He  then  rode 
along  the  regimental  front,  and  accosting  the  lieutenant- 
colonel,  who  was  a  little  in  front  of  the  right  of  the  line,  he 
asked,  "  What  regiment  is  this?"  "  Ninth  New  Hamp 
shire,"  was  the  reply.  "•  You  made  a  gallant  charge," 
he  said,  4'  a  most  gallant  charge.  I  shall  take  great 
pleasure  in  giving  you  full  credit  for  it  in  my  report." 

Just  as  he  passed  on  to  the  right,  as  sudden  as  the 
lightning's  flash  and  unexpected  as  a  bolt  from  a  cloud 
less  sky,  along  the  front  and  away  to  the  right  there 
blazed  from  out  the  gathering  darkness  a  line  of  rattling 


i862.]  THE  BATTLE  OF  SOUTH  MOUNTAIN.  75 

musketry,  and  a  storm  of  bullets  came  whistling  through 
the  air.  With  equal  suddenness  a  portion  of  the  regi 
ment  returned  the  fire,  and  then  with  one  impulse,  as  it 
seemed,  there  was  a  break  to  the  rear.  Before  they 
could  be  halted  many  of  the  men  had  put  themselves  on 
the  other  side  of  the  fence  at  the  edge  of  the  woods, 
though  they  were  quickly  brought  back  and  the  line  re 
formed.  After  an  interval  sufficient  to  give  time  to  re 
load,  the  firing  from  the  front  was  renewed.  It  was  not, 
however,  a  sudden  volley,  as  at  first,  but  more  continu 
ous  though  somewhat  scattering  ;  and  in  the  mean  time 
the  Ninth  was  moved  a  little  to  the  rear  and  older  troops 
were  placed  in  front.  The  firing  soon  dwindled  to  ap 
parently  little  more  than  that  of  pickets,  and  though 
quite  brisk  at  times  for  perhaps  an  hour,  it  gradually 
died  away  to  now  and  then  a  shot,  and  by  nine  o'clock 
had  ceased  entirely. 

In  this  last  attack  the  regiment  suffered  from  no  casu 
alties,  the  bullets  passing  harmlessly  over  their  heads. 
Nor  did  they  fire  another  shot,  for  they  were  now  in  the 
second  line,  where  it  was  not  their  business  to  shoot.  In 
fact,  the  conformation  of  the  ground  was  such — descend 
ing  slightly  towards  both  combatants — that  there  was  but 
little  loss  on  the  Union  side,  though  in  the  death  of  Gen 
eral  Reno,  the  commander  of  the  Ninth  corps,  both  the 
corps  and  the  Union  cause  suffered  a  great  and  irrepara 
ble  loss.  The  circumstances  were  as  follows  : 

After  addressing  Lieutenant-Colonel  Titus  as  already 
stated,  General  Reno  rode  on  towards  the  right  for  a  dis 
tance  of  perhaps  twenty-five  yards,  and  then  came  the 
sudden  firing  described  above.  The  general,  turning, 
started  directly  towards  the  Union  lines.  In  another 
instant  came  the  answering  scattered  fire,  but  the  hero 


?6  NINTH  A?EW  HAMPSHIRE.  [September, 

had  received   his  death-wound,   and   for  him   the  battle 
was  indeed  over. 

His  loss,  following  so  quickly  upon  that  of  General 
Stevens,  killed  at  Chantilly,  was  keenly  felt  by  the  older 
regiments  of  the  corps,  with  which  he  had  been  identi 
fied,  as  well  as  with  the  Coast  division  that  preceded  it, 
from  the  time  of  their  first  formation  ;  and  although  he 
was  almost  a  stranger  to  the  men  of  the  Ninth  regiment, 
yet  his  death,  from  the  peculiar  circumstances  attending 
it,  has  always  been  associated  in  their  minds  with  their 
first  battle,  which  was  fought  under  his  immediate  com 
mand  ;  and  the  more  especially  because  their  part  in  it 
was  performed  under  his  very  eye,  in  high  commenda 
tion  of  which  his  last  words  were  spoken.  The  official 
order  announcing  his  death  may,  therefore,  well  have  a 
place  here  : 

HEAD-QUARTERS,  gth  ARMY  CORPS, 

MOUTH  ANTIETAM,  Sept.  20,  1862. 
GENERAL  ORDERS 

No.   17. 

The  Commanding  General  announces  to  the  Corps  the  loss  of  their 
late  leader,  Major-General  Jesse  S.  Reno. 

By  the  death  of  this  distinguished  officer  the  Country  loses  one  of  its 
most  devoted  patriots,  the  Army  one  of  its  most  thorough  soldiers. 

On  the  long  list  of  battles  in  which  General  Reno  has  fought  for  his 
Country's  Service,  his  name  always  appears  with  the  brightest  lustre, 
and  he  has  now  met  a  soldier's  death  while  gallantly  leading  his  men 
at  the  battle  of  South  Mountain . 

For  his  high  character  and  the  kindly  qualities  of  his  heart  in  private 
life,  as  well  as  for  the  military  genius  and  personal  daring  as  a  soldier, 
his  loss  will  be  deplored  by  all  who  knew  him,  and  the  Commanding 
General  desires  to  add  the  tribute  of  a  friend  to  the  public  mourn 
ing  for  the  death  of  one  of  the  Country's  best  defenders. 
By  Command  of  Major-General  Burnside. 

LEWIS  RICHMOND, 
Lt.  Col.  &  A.  A.  G. 


1 862.]  THE  BATTLE  OF  SOUTH  MOUNTAIN.  77 

The  conduct  of  a  part  of  the  Ninth  New  Hampshire 
was  extremely  mortifying  to  Lieutenant-Colonel  Titus. 
It  was  not  because  the  men  suddenly  conceived  the  idea 
that  they  were  on  the  wrong  side  of  the  fence,  and  as 
suddenly  started  for  the  other  side, — for  that  was  not  sur 
prising  under  the  circumstances, — but  that  the  turn-about 
should  follow,  as  it  did,  the  splendid  charge,  the  retreat 
in  strict  military  order  in  full  view  of  so  large  a  part  of 
the  whole  corps,  and  especially  right  upon  the  words  of 
commendation  from  the  corps  commander.  As  soon  as 
the  line  was  reformed  he  took  occasion  to  administer  a 
rebuke  and  inculcate  a  lesson  in  a  few  emphatic  words. 

"Walking  along  in  front  of  the  line  after  it  had  been 
reformed,  he  addressed  a  few  words  to  each  company  in 
turn.  I  remember  well  his  halting  before  ours,  and  with 
look  and  tone  that  went  right  through  every  man  before 
him,  bursting  out  with — 'And  I  have  a  word  to  say  to 
this  company,  too.  I  know  you  are  green  and  have  n't 
had  much  drill  and  discipline,  but  there  is  one  thing  you 
do  know,  and  that  is  that  you  must  obey  orders ;  and 
though  I  am  a  Christian  man  at  home  [this  was  the  only 

time  I  ever  knew  him  to  use  a  profane  word] , 

—  !     Don't  you  ever  fire  a  gun  again,  nor  change  your 
position,  without  orders." 

Thus  reads  the  rewritten  diary  of  Sergeant  Burnham, 
of  Company  E.  The  omitted  words  (if  important)  may 
be  supplied  from  recollection  or  imagination,  as  the  case 
may  be.  They  were  good  old-fashioned  Bible  words, 
without  doubt,  and  not  entirely  unfamiliar. 

It  should  be  added,  however,  that  many  of  the  men 
stood  their  ground  ;  that  the  greater  number  halted  at 


78  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [September, 

the  first  words  of  command,  and  that  the  line  was 
reformed,  the  rebuke  administered,  and  the  new  posi 
tion  taken,  literally  under  fire;  for  the  bullets  were 
whistling  sharply  over  their  heads  all  the  time. 

Viewed  in  the  light  of  their  after  experience  the  Bat 
tle  of  South  Mountain  might  be  regarded  as  simply  an 
initiation  to  the  hardships  of  war,  but  to  a  new  regiment 
it  would  easily  seem  what  it  has  been  characterized  in 
the  following  sketch  : 

A    ROUGH    BREAKING-IN. 
By  Dr.  George  L.  Wakefield. 

When  we  got  to  the  stone  wall  on  the  side  of  the 
mountain, — where  the  rebels  retreated  just  as  we  were 
about  to  climb  over  the  wall,  which  was  very  high — 
Colonel  Fellows  turned  to  the  men  and  said,  "  I  want 
every  man  of  the  Ninth  New  Hampshire  to  follow  me 
over  that  wall.  Now,  men  of  the  Ninth,  is  the  time  to 
cover  yourselves  with  glory — or  disgrace  !  Any  man 
that  does  not  cross  this  wall  I  will  report  to  his  state." 

The  rebels  on  the  other  side  of  the  wall  were  armed 
with  long  knives,  carried  in  their  belts,  which  they 
doubtless  intended  to  use  on  us  ;  but  Colonel  Fellows 
called  their  attention  to  our  sabre  bayonets,  and  the  sight 
of  these  and  our  fellows  all  scrambling  over  the  wall  was 
too  much  for  the  doughty  rebels,  who  turned  and  fled  up 
the  mountain  as  if  for  their  lives,  with  the  Ninth  in  hot 
pursuit. 

As  we  neared  the  top  of  the  mountain  we  came  to  a 
rail  fence  and  stone  wall  combined,  beyond  which  was 
an  open  field  (Wise's).  The  rebels  were  just  getting 
over  the  fence  when  we  received  our  first  order  to  fire. 


j 


SERGT.  GEORGE  L.  WAKEFIELD,  Co.  G. 


i862.]  THE  BATTLE  OF  SOUTH  MOUNTAIN.  79 

We  halted  for  a  moment  and  fired,  and  if  it  was  our  first 
attempt,  hit  the  mark. 

There  is  one  incident  which  will  recall  to  the  boys' 
minds  the  whole  affair  as  above  written,  and  that  is  the 
rebel  who  was  "  shot  on  the  wing,"  and  who  got  his 
feet  so  locked  in  the  fence  rails  that  he  could  go  neither 
forward  nor  backward,  but  sat  there  on  the  fence  bolt 
upright, — stone  dead,  though  the  boys  thought  him 
only  sullen  because  he  did  not  answer  when  they 
spoke  to  him. 

After  firing  that  one  volley  we  moved  forward  in  a 
charge  across  the  field,  and  then  down  the  mountain  on 
the  other  side,  where  we  received  the  fire  of  a  rebel 
battery,  which  checked  the  advance  of  the  regiment. 
We  moved  by  the  right  flank  a  short  distance,  and  got 
the  order  to  cover  as  we  were  lying  flat  on  the  ground. 
Then  there  came  two  or  three  loud  reports  from  the 
cannon,  which  seemed  to  shake  the  very  mountain,  and 
we  fell  back  to  the  summit,  where  we  reformed. 

After  we  had  returned  from  the  charge  and  had 
reformed  in  the  south-eastern  part  of  Wise's  field,  our 
position  was  in  front  of  the  other  regiments  of  the  bri 
gade.  On  the  right  and  rear  were  the  Fifty-first  New 
York  and  Fifty-first  Pennsylvania  in  front,  and  the 
Twenty-first  Massachusetts  in  their  rear.  As  the  Thirty- 
fifth  Massachusetts  were  reforming  their  line  in  rear  of 
the  Twenty-first,  there  came  a  sudden  and  sharp  fire  of 
musketry  from  the  front  and  a  little  to  our  right. 

Of  this  firing  the  historian  of  the  Thirty-fifth  Massa 
chusetts  says  : 

"The  surprise  was  complete.  The  darkening  forest 
was  lined  with  flashes  of  the  hostile  guns,  and  their  bullets 


80  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [September, 

cut  the  earth  about  our  feet,  the  ground  descending  tow 
ards  the  enemy.  Instantly  some  of  the  men  threw  for 
ward  their  rifles  and  returned  the  fire,  aiming  over  the 
heads  of  the  line  in  front.  Orders  were  confused,  some 
shouting  'Fire,  fire  !  'others,  more  calm,  'Cease  firing  !' 
The  latter  quickly  prevailed,  although  after  a  momentary 
interval,  while  they  were  reloading  or  a  new  line  com 
ing  up,  the  enemy's  musketry  was  continued,  and  men  of 
our  regiment  were  being  hit;  and  our  line  was  drawn 
back  into  the  edge  of  the  forest,  east  of  the  field,  so  as 
to  be  less  exposed.  It  was  in  this  sudden  attack  that 
General  Reno  received  a  mortal  wound,  and  our  colonel 
lost  his  arm. 

"The  men  of  the  regiment  who  fired  at  the  time  of 
the  sudden  attack  were  rightly  blamed  for  doing  so  with 
out  the  colonel's  orders,  but  such  occurrences  are  not 
easily  avoided ;  even  veteran  troops,  when  unexpectedly 
assaulted  in  a  wooded  country,  will,  if  they  think  they 
see  an  opening  for  a  shot,  return  the  fire  without  orders, 
for  the  noise  of  the  attack  drowns  the  commander's  voice, 
it  can  never  be  known  how  far  the  enemy  will  advance, 
and  the  ball  or  the  bayonet  is  the  only  thing  to  stop 
them.  The  marvel  was  not  that  our  raw  men  blazed 
away,  but  that  they  could  be  stopped,  and  remain  steady 
while  the  enemy's  fire  continued." 

One  of  the  correspondents  who  was  with  the  division 
of  General  Sturgis  (to  the  First  brigade  of  which  the 
Ninth  New  Hampshire  had  been  assigned)  at  the  Battle 
of  South  Mountain,  gives  the  following  account  of  the 
part  taken  by  that  division  in  the  contest : 

"Our  division,  under  General  Sturgis,  were  on  the 
extreme  left,  and  were  not  placed  in  line  until  about  five 


1 862.]  THE  BATTLE  OF  SOUTH  MOUNTAIN.  8 1 

o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  when  a  double-quick  movement 
took  place,  and  the  whole  division  started  like  Bengal 
tigers  let  loose  for  prey.  They  ran  through  a  galling 
fire  of  shot  and  shell  until  they  were  within  reach  of 
the  enemy's  musketry,  when  a  heavy  fire  opened  on 
them,  which  General  Nagle  (commanding  our  bri 
gade)  saw  at  once  would  decimate  the  brigade,  and 
so  the  order  came  to  charge  bayonets.  Promptly  the 
glistening  steel  was  placed  in  position :  and  here  one  of 
the  most  brilliant  bayonet  charges  took  place  that  has 
been  seen  during  the  war.  The  brigade  had  to  charge 
up  hill,  over  stone  walls  and  other  obstructions,  and  met 
the  enemy  at  great  disadvantage.  The  Massachusetts 
Thirty -fifth  regiment  was  put  in  order  of  battle,  and  did 
great  execution  at  the  first  onset. 

"  In  General  Nagle's  brigade  and  Sturgis's  division  was 
also  the  Ninth  regiment,  New  Hampshire  volunteers, 
under  Colonel  Fellows,  one  of  the  most  experienced 
commanders  in  the  army.  It  was  a  handsome  sight 
to  see  him  put  his  regiment  into  action.  When  the  clear, 
sonorous  order  came  from  Colonel  Fellows,  '  Charge 
bayonets ! '  every  eye  in  the  *  Bloody  Ninth,'  as  the 
brigade  now  call  the  regiment,  gleamed ;  every  man 
threw  away  his  knapsack,  blanket,  and  haversack,  and 
leaped  over  a  stone  wall  six  feet  high  with  a  yell  that 
fairly  sent  terror  through  the  rebel  ranks  on  the  oppo 
site  side.  With  eyes  gleaming  with  joy  and  determina 
tion,  and  every  bayonet  fixed,  they  charged  up  the  hill, 
and  through  the  corn-field  at  double-quick,  with  a  yell  of 
perfect  triumph. 

"Colonel  Fellows  and  Lieutenant-Colonel  Titus  aston 
ished  the  old  veterans  in  the  service  by  the  manner  in 
which  they  brought  the  Ninth  New  Hampshire  volun- 

VI 


82  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [September, 

teers  into  action.  It  was  a  grand  and  magnificent 
sight  and  one  seldom  seen  in  battle.  The  rebels  fled 
before  them,  and  every  rebel  regiment  broke  and  ran. 
General  Reno  fell  beside  the  Ninth  New  Hampshire 
volunteers  and  the  Thirty-fifth  Massachusetts  about 
dark,  just  in  the  moment  of  victory." 

The  day  had  been  hot,  and  the  men  were  bathed  in 
perspiration  from  their  tremendous  exertions ;  but  the 
night  was  cold,  fires  were  not  to  be  thought  of,  and  the 
detail  sent  back  for  the  blankets  and  other  equipments, 
thrown  off  in  the  excitement  of  the  charge,  returned 
almost  empty-handed.  Evidently  the  belongings  of  the 
Ninth  New  Hampshire  were  considered  as  worth  caring 
for, — by  some  one  else — and  for  the  first  time,  though 
not  the  last,  the  men  realized  that  the  army  contained 
many  an  Autolycus,  who  was  not  a  "  snapper-up  of 
unconsidered  trifles"  only.  So,  blanketless  and  supper- 
less  on  their  baptismal  battle  night,  the  Ninth  regiment 
lay  upon  that  mountain-top  in  battle  line,  with  the  ready 
rifle  close  at  hand  ;  but,  exhausted  by  the  march  of  the 
previous  night,  the  fatigues  of  the  day,  and  relaxation 
from  the  strain  of  battle,  they  were  soon  oblivious  alike 
of  cold  and  hunger. 

The  history  of  a  regiment  in  battle  embraces  not  only 
its  external  history,  showing  its  relation  to  and  combina 
tion  with  other  elements  in  the  problem  ;  its  integral  his 
tory,  in  which  it  is  treated  merely  as  a  unit ;  but  it  also 
includes  its  internal  or  fractional  history,  for  each  and 
every  man  has,  or  may  have,  a  history  or  experience  of 
his  own  that  may  be  worthy  of  record ;  and  first  on  the 
list  of  these  experiences  are  the  casualties. 

The    first    man    hit    was    Lieutenant    Copp,  who   was 


i862.]  THE  BATTLE  OF  SOUTH  MOUNTAIN.  83 

struck  on  the  boot  by  a  spent  ball  before  the  regiment 
filed  out  of  the  road.  The  first  man  wounded  was  Cor 
poral  Hiram  S.  Lathe,  of  Company  F.  As  the  men 
were  filing  out,  and  just  as  he  bent  his  leg  to  step  from 
the  road  on  to  the  bank,  a  bullet  imbedded  itself  in  the 
knee  joint,  which  it  started  apart.  His  brother,  James 
W.,  extracted  the  bullet  with  his  jack-knife,  bound  up 
the  wound,  carried  him  on  his  back  to  the  surgeon,  and 
rejoined  his  company  before  the  regiment  reached  the 
corn-field. 

Lewis  W.  Aldrich  of  Company  I  was  struck  in  the 
thigh  by  a  bullet  just  as  the  men  started  up  the  mountain 
in  regimental  line.  Dropping  his  rifle,  and  clasping  his 
wounded  leg  with  both  hands,  his  imprecation  upon  the 
responsible  parties  was  sudden,  emphatic,  and  not  to  be 
repeated. 

Just  about  the  same  time  Herbert  N.  Streeter  was 
wounded  in  the  right  hand.  He  was  a  mere  boy,  in 
appearance  one  of  the  youngest  in  the  regiment.  Still 
holding  his  rifle  in  the  left  hand,  he  coolly  stepped  up  to 
the  captain,  and  holding  out  the  now  useless  member, 
said,  with  a  perplexed  and  injured  air,  "See  there! 
What  shall  I  do  now?" 

The  first  man  mortally  wounded  was  Joel  S.  Judkins 
of  Company  A, — "Uncle  Joel,"  as  he  was  familiarly 
called — as  the  line  was  charging  up  the  mountain ;  and 
almost  at  the  same  instant  Charles  W.  Glidden  was 
severely  wounded.  The  younger  Judkins,  Charles  M., 
a  nephew  to  Joel,  was  in  line  between  the  two  men  as 
they  fell.  Captain  Pillsbury  turned  to  him  and  said, 
"Charlie,  take  care  of  Uncle  Joel."  He  accordingly 
helped  the  wounded  man  down  the  mountain  to  the  barn 
which  was  used  as  a  hospital,  when  Joel  said  to  him, 


84  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [September, 

"  Go  back  and  give  it  to  'em  !"  He  ran  up  the  moun 
tain  until  he  overtook  the  regiment,  and  did  his  best  to 
comply  with  Uncle  Joel's  parting  injunction.  Judkins 
was  wounded  in  the  thigh,  and  died  of  his  wounds  four 
days  afterwards  in  the  hospital  at  Middletown ;  and 
Glidden  was  subsequently  discharged  for  disability  from 
his  wound. 

The  first  shell  to  strike  the  regiment  exploded, in  the 
ranks  of  Company  E,  wounding  Privates  Simpson  and 
Paul ;  and  Luther  C.  Hurlburt  was  so  wrenched  and 
injured  by  the  force  of  the  explosion  and  the  flying  dirt 
as  to  unfit  him  for  further  active  service.  Corporal 
Mayo  was  thrown  to  the  ground,  but  soon  picked  himself 
up  and  went  on  with  the  company. 

Thus,  as  the  men  advanced,  with  shot  and  shell  all 
around  them,  one  by  one  they  dropped  from  the  ranks 
until  the  list  numbered  twenty-six,  as  given  below  : 

Company  A. — Privates  Charles  W.  Glidden,  Joel  S. 
Judkins,  Lyman  M.  Ramsey.  Company  B. — Private 
Joshua  Nichols.  Company  C. — Corporal  Orrin  A.  Small, 
Private  William  H.  Applebee.  Company  D. — Privates 
Charles  E.  Eoster,  Enoch  E.  Hazelton.  Company  E. — 
Privates  Frank  B.  Hackett,  Luther  C.  Hurlburt,  Moses 
N.  Paul,  Henry  H.  Simpson.  Company  F. — Corporal 
Hiram  S.  Lathe,  Private  George  W.  Hall.  Company 
G. — First  Sergeant  George  W.  Gove,  Private  Mial 
Tarbell.  Company  H. — Privates  Larkin  H.  Clough, 
William  F.  Cowen.  Company  I. — Corporal  Lewis  W. 
Aldrich,  Privates  George  E.  Hastings,  Herbert  N. 
Streeter,  Charles  E.  Towns.  Company  K. — Corporals 
Joel  S.  Blood,  Sylvester  B.  Warren,  Privates  Jacob 
Abbott,  Thomas  S.  Austin,  Eben  Eldridge. 


i862.]  THE  BATTLE  OF  SOUTH  MOUNTAIN.  85 

None  were  killed  outright,  but  two — Judkins  of  A  and 
Hazelton  of  D — died  of  their  wounds. 

The  members  of  the  band  are  entitled  to  great  credit 
for  their  services.  Reporting  for  duty  to  the  surgeon  as 
directed,  and  leaving  their  instruments  at  a  house  near 
by  taken  as  a  hospital,  they  followed  the  regiment  and 
brought  off  the  wounded  under  fire  ;  not  only  those  of 
their  own  regiment,  to  whom  they  gave  their  first  atten 
tion,  but  of  other  regiments,  especially  the  Thirty-fifth 
Massachusetts  and  Seventeenth  Michigan ;  and  then 
those  of  the  enemy.  They  were  brought  off  on  blankets 
and  shelter  tents,  no  stretchers  having  been  provided. 
It  was  a  perilous  service,  as  performed,  but  there  was  no 
flinching  ;  at  least,  none  was  reported. 

Even  in  the  excitement  of  this,  the  Ninth's  first 
engagement  with  the  enemy,  some  prisoners  were  taken, 
perhaps  a  half  dozen  in  all.  Hurlburt  of  Company  E 
tells  the  story  of  one  capture  as  follows  : 

"Just  after  we  had  passed  over  the  top  of  the  moun 
tain  into  a  growth  of  mountain  laurel,  I  got  separated 
from  my  company,  and  coming  upon  Company  A,  I 
asked  Captain  Pillsbury  where  it  was,  and  he  answered 
'To  the  right.'  I  started  in  that  direction,  and  the  next 
thing  I  knew  I  was  alone  and  came  right  on  a  Johnny, 
who  looked  as  though  he  had  his  gun  drawn  on  me. 
My  hair  stood  right  up  on  end  and  took  my  hat  with  it, 
but  he  threw  his  gun  down  and  said  he  would  sur 
render.  I  thought  he  was  going  to  use  his  knife,  so 
I  got  my  sabre  bayonet  ready  to  put  into  him  and  made 
him  hold  up  his  hands.  We  were  standing  near  an  oak 
tree  that  divided  into  two  branches  ;  and  while  he  still 
had  his  hands  up,  there  came  a  cannon  shot  that  split 


86  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [September, 

that  oak  tree  right  in  two.  He  said,  'Let's  get  out  of 
here  before  we  are  killed.'  On  our  way  to  the  rear  I 
came  first  to  some  Pennsylvania  soldiers,  who  said  they 
would  take  care  of  him,  so  I  gave  him  up." 

It  appears  that  the  enemy  mistook  the  regiment  for 
an  entire  brigade,  more  than  one  of  the  prisoners  ask 
ing  what  brigade  it  was  that  charged  them. 

In  a  graphic  account  of  this  battle  by  the  Confederate 
commander  Gen.  D.  H.  Hill,  who  was  at  the  time  near 
the  Mountain  House,  more  than  a  mile  to  the  right,  he 
says, — 

"About  four  o'clock  I  saw  what  appeared  to  be  two 
Federal  brigades  emerge  from  the  woods  south  of  Col- 
quitt's  position  and  form  in  an  open  field  nearly  at 
right  angles  to  each  other — one  brigade  facing  toward 
the  pike,  and  the  other  facing  the  general  direction  of 
the  mountain.  This  inverted  V-like  formation  was 
similar  to  that  of  the  First  Mississippi  regiment  at 
Buena  Vista.  If  it  was  made  anywhere  else  during 
the  Civil  War,  I  never  heard  of  it.  The  V  afforded  a 
fine  target  from  the  pike,  and  I  directed  Captain  Lane 
to  open  on  it  with  his  battery.  His  firing  was  wild,  not 
a  shot  hitting  the  mark.  The  heavv  batteries  promptly 
replied,  showing  such  excellent  practice  that  Lane's 
guns  were  soon  silenced.  A  small  force  in  the  edge 
of  the  woods  on  the  west  side  of  the  old  field  opened 
fire  upon  the  V.  The  Federals  changed  their  forma 
tion,  and,  advancing  in  line  of  battle,  brushed  away 
their  assailants  and  plunged  into  the  woods,  when 
heavy  firing  began,  which  lasted  possibly  half  an  hour. 
I  suppose  that  the  Federal  force  which  I  saw  was  the 
division  of  General  Sturgis." 


i862.]  THE  BATTLE  OF  SOUTH  MOUNTAIN.  87 

Moving  out  of  the  road,  as  the  division  did,  in  both 
directions,  it  would  appear  to  the  Confederate  comman 
der  to  be  emerging  from  the  intervening  woods,  which 
would  hide  the  road  from  his  view.  The  heavy  firing  at 
the  time  of  the  advance  is  thus  accounted  for,  all  this 
being  in  addition  to  the  firing  from  the  batteries  upon 
the  crest  in  front.  But  he  is  slightly  mistaken  about 
44 not  a  shot  hitting  the  mark."  It  was  the  Ninth  New 
Hampshire  that  received  the  fire  from  the  "  small  force 
in  the  edge  of  the  woods  ;"  and  it  was  the  only  regiment 
which,  "  advancing  in  line  of  battle,  brushed  away  their 
assailants  and  plunged  into  the  woods." 


CHAPTER  IV. 
THE  BATTLE  AT  ANTIETAM  CREEK. 

AFTER    SOUTH    MOUNTAIN. 

Day-dawn  brought  the  warm  sunlight,  which  fell 
gratefully  upon  fatigued  and  stiffened  limbs,  aching  not 
only  with  the  terrible  strain  of  yesterday's  battle  and  the 
unaccustomed  march  preceding  it,  but  from  the  night's 
exposure  to  the  chill  and  heavy  fog  that  had  served  in 
lieu  of  blankets.  Quickly  the  new  day  hastened  from 
the  east,  the  first  rosy,  wakening  flush  seeming  to  pale 
with  dread  after  one  glance  upon  the  horrors  lying 
revealed  in  the  early  light. 

"  Never,"  writes  a  comrade,  "  shall  I  forget  my  first 
indefinable  feelings  as  I  beheld  the  wounded  or  dead  in 
the  field ; "  and  such  was  doubtless  the  involuntary 
thought  of  all  as  they  looked  about  them  at  the  ghastly 
repetition  of  suffering  and  death  on  all  sides, — the  fright 
ful  evidences  of  yesterday's  grim  carnival. 

Here  and  there  could  be  seen  little  groups  of  men, 
picking  their  way  carefully  over  the  blood-bought  field, 
and  recalling  to  each  other  the  experiences  of  yesterday. 

One  has  written, — 

"  Strange  sights  meet  my  eyes  this  morning  as  I  walk 
over  the  battle-field  of  yesterday.  The  trees  are  shiv 
ered,  rent,  and  grazed  by  missiles  of  all  descriptions, 
and  their  broken  branches,  with  all  the  debris  of  war, 


i862.]  THE  BATTLE  AT  ANTIETAM  CREEK.  89 

strew  the  ground  ;  but  sadder  than  all  else  is  the  sight  of 
ghastly  corpses  everywhere  on  the  field.  But  few  Union 
men  are  to  be  seen  this  morning,  as  doubtless  most  of 
those  killed  have  been  taken  off  by  comrades  and  buried. 
The  number  of  rebel  dead  shows  that  they  fought  des 
perately.  In  one  place  I  noticed  eighteen  literally  piled 
upon  each  other,  the  whole  occupying  less  than  a  square 
rod  of  ground,  most  of  them  shot  through  the  head. 
They  were  ragged,  dirty,  and  many  of  them  shoeless. 
In  their  haversacks  is  bread  made  of  flour  or  meal  and 
water,  baked  in  the  ashes  or  in  a  spider,  without  yeast 
or  soda.  In  their  pockets  and  knapsacks  are  found  very 
few  valuable  trinkets,  though  they  all  get  searched. 
Some  of  the  rebel  prisoners  are  assisting  in  burying 
their  own  dead.  It  was  ascertained  from  the  diaries  of 
some  of  those  killed  that  they  had  enlisted  only  three 
days  before." 

Again  we  find,— 

"  Looked  over  a  part  of  the  battle-field,  and  oh,  it  was 
horrible  beyond  description  !  There  were  a  good  many 
of  our  own  men  killed,  but  they  were  few  compared  with 
the  enemy.  Counted  no  less  than  forty  behind  perhaps 
five  rods  of  stone  wall,  the  most  of  them  shot  through 
the  head  or  breast,  and  of  all  the  horrid  looking  objects 
ever  seen  I  believe  they  were  the  worst.  In  most  cases 
the  features  were  fearfully  distorted  with  rage,  or  pain,  or 
both.  This,  with  their  dirt,  long  hair,  and  squalid  uni 
forms,  made  up  a  spectacle  such  as  I  never  wish  to 
behold  again." 

"But  I  did  see  many  such,  and  even  worse,"  is  the 
laconic  statement  written  by  the  diarist  years  afterwards 
as  a  marginal  note. 


90  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [September, 

One  soldier-boy  wrote  home, — 

"  I  have  seen  all  of  war  I  ever  wish  to.  The  thing  is 
indescribable.  Oh,  horrors  !  "  And  farther  on  is  this  : 

"  The  Southern  army  is  very  poorly  clad.  Indeed,  a 
large  number  of  them  are  barefoot.  Their  uniforms  are 
made  of  the  coarsest  kind  of  gray  cloth,  and  their  jackets 
are  cut  the  same  as  a  school-boy's.  They  carry  nothing 
but  their  guns  and  cartridges,  a  canteen  and  a  blanket, 
and  some  of  them  a  haversack,  so  they  have  little  to 
carry,  and  most  of  them  are  spry  on  foot.  They  are 
just  the  color  of  the  ground,  and  so  hard  to  be  seen." 

Clearly,  too,  does  one  remember  the  strangely  life 
like  position  of  that  dead  Confederate  soldier  sitting 
astride  the  stone  wall  near  Wise's  house,  his  body  bent 
slightly  forward,  killed  just  in  the  act  of  climbing  over; 
keeping  surely  more  uncanny  vigil  than  did  ever  sable 
bird  of  poet,  who 

"  Perched  and  sat  and  nothing  more." 

Yet,  with  the  quickly  acquired  tendency  of  the  soldier  to 
turn  anything  into  a  jest,  entirely  regardless  of  his  own 
feelings,  a  Company  E  boy,  noting  the  well-shod  feet  of 
the  dead  man,  exclaimed,  "That's  the  first  rebel  I've 
seen  with  a  decent  pair  of  boots  on,  and  by  thunder,  if 
he  ha'  n't  got  up  there  to  show  'em  !  " 

The  work  of  removing  and  burying  the  dead  went  for 
ward  with  all  possible  speed,  though  the  rapid  digging 
of  so  many  graves  was  made  extremely  difficult  by  the 
stony  character  of  the  ground.  In  long  windrows  they 
lay,  like  wheat  from  the  sickle,  in  fence  corners,  on  the 
banks,  along  the  sunken  road,  and  beside  the  stone 


i862.]  THE  BATTLE  AT  ANTIETAM  CREEK.  91 

wall ;    and  regarding  this,  the  historian  of  the  Thirty- 
fifth  Massachusetts  says, — 

"  When  the  contest  had  ceased,  General  Sturgis  sent 
up  a  section  of  artillery;  and,  to  let  the  guns  pass,  our 
men  moved  the  wounded  and  dead  from  the  road  upon 
the  bank,  sometimes  in  the  darkness  placing  several 
bodies  together,  which  led  observers  in  the  morning  to 
report  to  the  newspapers  that  '  the  rebels  were  piled  in 
heaps  as  high  as  the  wall.'  ' 

A  singular  alteration  had  already  become  noticeable 
in  the  countenances  of  the  Confederate  dead,  distin 
guishing  them  at  once  from  those  of  the  Union  troops ; 
they  were,  without  exception,  rapidly  turning  black,  so 
as  to  make  them  almost  unrecognizable  even  to  their 
own  associates.  This  curious  phenomenon  has  never 
been  satisfactorily  explained,  though  it  continued  to  be 
observable  throughout  the  war.  Some  surgeons  con 
jectured  that  it  might  be  due  to  the  scarcity  of  salt  in  the 
Confederate  army,  others  laid  it  to  the  habit  said"  to 
be  prevalent  among  them,  of  mixing  gunpowder  with 
their  whiskey.  Be  the  reason  what  it  may,  it  was  a 
sufficiently  shocking  and  painful  sight  to  unaccustomed 
eyes. 

But  neither  welcome  September  sunshine  nor  grue 
some  surroundings  could  long  avail  the  men  in  forget 
ting  the  sharpened  appetites  which  by  this  time  they  had 
succeeded  in  acquiring.  Not  only  had  they  slept  fast 
ing,  but  the  teams  carrying  the  rations  had  as  yet  failed 
to  connect,  and  the  inhospitable  fields  offered  little  pros 
pect  of  relief.  Guns,  blankets,  and  haversacks  littered 
the  ground  in  every  direction,  where  they  had  been 


£2  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [September, 

dropped  by  the  Confederates  during  the  fight,  so  the 
losses  of  the  previous  day  were  in  a  measure  made 
good:  but  as  to  how  their  fast  was  broken,  "that  is 
another  matter,"  as  William  IV  was  wont  to  exclaim 
when  loth  to  express  a  decided  opinion. 

The  hard,  round  biscuit-bread  found  in  the  ownerless 
haversacks  that  lay  scattered  about,  furnished  food  for  a 
few,  but  the  great  majority  were  in  the  same  woful 
plight  as  the  hungry  soul  who  thus  voices  his  plaint  : 
"  Having  thrown  off  my  haversack  yesterday,  contain 
ing  three  days'  rations,  I  am  without  any  grub  ;"  but 

gratefully  adds    that   "  my   friend    G in   the    Sixth 

New  Hampshire  gave  me  a  breakfast." 

Another  record  runs  thus  :  "I  picked  up  half  a  hard 
tack  by  the  roadside ;  and  this,  with  a  little  piece  of 
meat,  was  all  my  rations." 

Later  in  the  day  it  is  learned  that  the  compiler  of  the 
same  little  battered  book  "found  plenty  of  green  corn 
and  green  apples,"  and  after  partaking  as  freely  as  he 
dared,  "  fell  asleep  and  slept  soundly." 

With  such  a  scant  bill  of  fare,  it  is  no  wonder  that  the 
majority  of  the  boys  seem  either  to  forget  that  they  had 
<  any  breakfast,  or,  at  any  rate,  to  consider  what  they  did 
have  as  too  slight  a  matter  to  be  worthy  of  notice. 


AT  ANTIETAM  CREEK. 

The  general  expectation  on  the  evening  of  September 
14  was  that  the  contest  would  be  renewed  on  the  follow 
ing  day,  and  therefore,  as  darkness  slowly  settled  down 


i862.]  THE  BATTLE  AT  ANTIETAM  CREEK.  93 

on  the  mountain  and  active  hostilities  ceased,  prepara 
tions  for  the  morrow  were  begun.  The  hours  of  dark 
ness  passed,  the  dawn  came,  and  as  the  gray  mist  rolled 
down  the  mountain  and  away  from  the  valley  no  enemy 
could  be  seen,  for  under  cover  of  the  night  the  Confed 
erate  forces  had  been  withdrawn. 

The  effect  of  this  move  could  only  be  to  change  the 
scene  of  the  great  battle  already  foreshadowed,  for  it  was 
not  probable  that  the  invaders  would  so  easily  be  dis 
suaded  from  their  purpose;  but  rather,  that  having  con 
centrated  their  now  scattered  forces,  a  stand  would  be 
made  at  some  favorable  position  and  hostilities  renewed. 

While  the  battle  was  being  fought  at  South  Mountain, 
General  McClellan  was  engaged  in  massing  the  remain 
der  of  the  troops  in  and  about  Middleton,  eight  miles 
to  the  south-east  from  Boonsborough  and  on  the  main 
road  from  Frederick  to  Hagerstown.  When  the  advance 
of  the  pickets,  on  the  morning  of  the  I5th,  had  given 
assurance  of  the  enemy's  disappearance,  General 
Pleasanton's  cavalry  and  the  First,  Second,  and  Twelfth 
corps,  under  Generals  Hooker,  Sumner,  and  Mansfield, 
respectively,  were  sent  off  to  the  north-west,  along  the 
main  road  toward  Boonsborough  ;  General  Franklin's, 
command,  which  had  occupied  Crampton's  Gap  on  the 
I4th,  would  secure  possession  of  Rohrersville  in  the 
south-west;  and  the  Ninth  corps,  coming  down  from  the 
mountain,  were  to  take  the  old  Sharpsburg  road  to  the 
west. 

It  was  past  noon  when  the  Ninth  corps,  which  was 
now  under  the  command  of  General  Cox,  left  South 
Mountain.  The  men  were,  weary  from  their  forced 
marches,  and  exhausted  from  lack  of  sufficient  food  ;  so 
that  the  eight  miles  covered  before  dark  seemed  very 


94  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [September, 

long  ones,  and  when  they  finally  rested  on  their  arms, 
many  threw  themselves  down  on  the  bare  ground  and 
slept  soundly. 

The  Confederate  forces  had  retreated  across  Antie- 
tam  creek,  and  had  taken  up  a  position  extending  well 
along  the  high  bank  of  the  western  side  of  the  stream, 
and  one  which  commanded  in  the  rear  the  road  to 
Shepherdstown,  on  the  Potomac — a  safe,  and  in  fact 
the  only,  line  of  retreat  open  to  them  in  case  of  defeat. 
The  Army  of  the  Potomac  began  to  arrive  at  the  east 
ern  bank  just  before  dark.  General  Richardson's 
division  of  the  Second  corps  had  advanced  through 
Keedysville,  along  the  Sharpsburg  and  Boonsborough 
turnpike,  and  striking  Antietam  creek,  deployed  to  the 
right.  The  other  two  divisions  of  General  Sumner's 
corps  took  up  positions  behind  Richardson,  with  the 
cavalry,  under  General  Pleasanton,  on  his  flank. 
General  Mansfield  supported  General  Hooker.  Gen 
eral  Sykes's  division  of  Gen.  Fitz-John  Porter's  corps 
(the  Fifth),  which  had  been  under  the  command  of 
General  Burnside  at  South  Mountain,  and  with  the 
Ninth  corps  now  constituted  the  left  wing  of  General 
McClellan's  advanced  forces,  came  along  the  old 
Sharpsburg  road  to  Porterstown,  then  filed  to  the  left, 
and  was  joined  soon  by  the  Ninth  corps. 

Antietam  creek,  in  the  vicinity  of  Sharpsburg  and 
Keedysville,  could  be  crossed  by  either  one  of  three 
bridges,  but  the  current  was  slow,  its  waters  were  deep, 
and  it  was  thought  to  be  difficult  to  ford.  The  bridge  on 
the  Rohrersville  and  Sharpsburg  road  is  about  three 
miles  above  the  point  where  the  creek  enters  the  Poto 
mac  ;  the  next  bridge  is  about  a  mile  higher  up  the 
creek,  on  the  Keedysville  and  Sharpsburg  turnpike  ;  the 


i862.]  THE  BATTLE  AT  ANTIETAM  CREEK.  95 

last,  better  known  as  "  Number  i,"  is  on  the  Keedysville 
and  Williamsport  road,  two  and  a  half  miles  farther  up 
the  creek.  About  midway  between  the  two  last  men 
tioned  is  a  ford. 

Facing  the  Federal  forces,  on  the  right  side  of 
Antietam  creek,  there  was,  on  the  night  of  the  i5th,  only 
a  small  part  of  the  Army  of  Northern  Virginia.  Gen 
eral  Jackson  was  still  at  Harper's  Ferry ;  General 
McLaws  was  at  Maryland  Heights,  and  General  Walker 
was  occupying  Loudon  Heights.  Only  Longstreet's 
and  D.  H.  Hill's  divisions  and  the  main  body  of  Stuart's 
cavalry  were  at  Antietam  with  General  Lee.  Long- 
street's  line  extended  across  the  Boonsborough  turnpike 
to  a  point  slightly  below  the  lowest  of  the  three  bridges. 
D.  H.  Hill's  line  was  north  and  west  of  Longstreet's,  his 
left  resting  on  the  "Dunker  chapel." 

The  Confederate  forces  were  wearied  by  their  long- 
continued  activity,  disappointed  in  their  welcome  by  the 
citizens  of  Maryland,  and  somewhat  disheartened  by 
their  repulse  at  South  Mountain.  General  Lee  was 
beginning  to  fear  that  the  invasion  from  which  his 
advisers  had  hoped  so  much  might  prove  disastrous.  He 
suspected  that  a  copy  of  his  since-famous  "  lost  order" 
was  in  General  McClellan's  possession,  and  if  such  were 
the  fact  there  was  a  possibility  that  the  Federal  com 
mander,  by  energetic  movements,  might  imperil  and 
perhaps  capture  the  forces  under  General  McLaws. 
September  15  he  sent  the  following  order  to  the  latter : 


96  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [September, 

HEADQUARTERS, 
CENTREVILLE  [KEEDYSVILLE]  ,  MD., 

September  15,  1862. 
GENERAL  McLAws, 

Commanding  Division,  &^c. : 

GENERAL  :  General  Lee  desires  me  to  say  that  he  sent  several  dis 
patches  to  you  last  night ;  he  is  in  doubt  that  they  have  been  received. 
We  have  fallen  back  to  this  place  to  enable  you  more  readily  to  join 
us.  You  are  desired  to  withdraw  immediately  from  your  position  on 
Maryland  Heights,  and  join  us  here.  If  you  can't  get  off  any  other 
way,  you  must  cross  the  mountain.  The  utmost  dispatch  is  required. 
Should  you  be  able  to  cross  over  to  Harper's  Ferry,  do  so,  and  report 
immediately. 

I  am,  very  respectfully, 

Your  obedient  servant, 

A.  L.  LONG, 
Colonel  and  Military  Secretary. 

It  is  evident  that  the  halt  was  made  at  Antietam  pri 
marily  in  order  to  give  McLaws  a  chance  to  join  his 
commander.  Had  General  McClellan  been  able  to 
complete  his  plan  of  action  during  the  night  of  the  I5th, 
and  to  bring  up  the  troops  of  Generals  Franklin  and 
Fitz-John  Porter,  so  as  to  have  attacked  with  vigor  on 
the  i6th,  there  might  not  be  to-day  a  National  cemetery 
at  Antietam.  But  he  was  not  ready. 

It  was  on  the  I5th  that  Harper's  Ferry  surrendered. 
The  Confederates  were  cheered  somewhat  by  the  suc 
cess  of  Jackson  and  McLaws  and  by  the  prospect  of  the 
speedy  return  of  their  absent  comrades,  and  General 
Lee  contracted  his  too  extended  lines  and  waited. 

From  reports  received  during  the  forenoon  of  the  i5th, 
the  Union  general  thought  the  Confederates  were  in  dis 
orderly  retreat.  He  regarded  the  triumph  of  the  Fed- 


LENDELL  A.  CONNOR,  Co.  G.  SAMUEL  C.  TOWNE,  Co.  G. 


JAMES  L.  COLBURN,  Co.  G.  D.  EMERSON  HURD,  Co.  G. 


i862.]  THE  BATTLE  AT  ANTIETAM  CREEK.  97 

eral    army   at  South    Mountain   as   complete,   and   tele 
graphed  Governor  Curtin,  of  Pennsylvania,  as  follows  : 

September  15,  1862 — 8  a.  m. 
Gov.  ANDREW  G.  CURTIN,  HARRISBURG  : 

I  have  the  pleasure  of  announcing  to  you  that  we  gained  a  complete 
victory  over  the  enemy  yesterday  afternoon,  and  have  now  entire  pos 
session  of  the  South  Mountain  range.  I  congratulate  you  on  the  gal 
lant  behavior  of  the  Pennsylvania  Reserves,  who,  as  well  as  all  the 
troops,  both  old  and  new,  acted  with  the  greatest  steadiness  and  gal 
lantry.  The  army  is  moving  in  pursuit  of  the  enemy. 

GEORGE  B.  MCCLELLAN, 

Major-  General  Commanding. 

On  the  same  day  and  at  the  same  hour  he  sent  the 
following  despatch  to  General  Halleck  : 

HEAD-QUARTERS  ARMY  OF  POTOMAC, 
BOLIVAR,  MD.,  September  15,  1862 — 8  a.  in. 

(Received  12  125  p.  m.) 
MAJ.  GEN.  W.  H.  HALLECK, 

GENERAL-IN-CHIEF:  I  have  just  learned  from  General  Hooker  in 
the  advance,  who  states  that  the  information  is  perfectly  reliable,  that 
the  enemy  is  making  for  Shepherdstown  in  a  perfect  panic ;  and  Gen 
eral  Lee  last  night  stated  publicly  that  he  must  admit  they  had  been 
shockingly  whipped.  I  am  hurrying  everything  forward  to  endeavor 
to  press  their  retreat  to  the  utmost. 

GEORGE  B.  MCCLELLAN, 

Major-General. 

At  ten  o'clock  he  sent  this  : 

HEAD-QUARTERS  ARMY  OF  THE  POTOMAC, 
BOLIVAR,  MD.,  September  15,  1862 — 10  a.  m. 
(Received  i  :  20  p.  m.) 
MAJOR-GENERAL  HALLECK, 

GENERAL-IN-CHIEF  U.  S.  ARMY: 
There   are  already  about    700    prisoners   at  Frederick,  under  very 

VII 


98  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [September, 

insufficient  guard,  and  I  shall  probably  send  in  a  larger  number  to-day. 
It  would  be  well  to  have  them  paroled  or  otherwise  disposed  of,  as 
Frederick  is  an  inconvenient  place  for  them.  Information  this  moment 
received  confirms  the  rout  and  demoralization  of  the  rebel  army. 
General  Lee  is  reported  wounded,  and  Garland  is  killed.  Hooker 
alone  has  over  1,000  more  prisoners.  It  is  stated  that  Lee  gives  his 
loss  as  15,000.  We  are  following  as  rapidly  as  the  men  can  move. 

GEO.  B.  MCCLELLAN, 
Major-  General,    Commanding. 

These  reports  from  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  intensi 
fied  the  suspense  among  the  officials  at  Washington, 
Governor  Curtin  was  in  close  communication  with 
north-western  Maryland,  and  President  Lincoln,  not 
hearing  from  McClellan  by  noon  of  the  i6th,  tele 
graphed  an  inquiry  to  the  governor.  But  that  very 
afternoon  the  president  heard  from  the  army,  through 
its  commander  and  General  Halleck,  as  follows  : 

HEAD-QUARTERS  ARMY  OF  THE  POTOMAC, 

BIVOUAC  NEAR  SHARPSBURG,  MD., 

September  16,  1862 — 7  a.  m. 

(Received  12  m.) 
MAJ.  GEN.  H.  W.  HALLECK, 
GENERAL-IN-CHIEF  : 

The  enemy  yesterday  held  a  position  just  in  front  of  Sharpsburg. 
When  our  troops  arrived  in  sufficient  force  it  was  too  late  in  the  day  to 
attack.  This  morning  a  heavy  fog  has  thus  far  prevented  us  doing 
more  than  ascertain  that  some  of  the  enemy  are  still  there.  Do  not 
know  in  what  force.  Will  attack  as  soon  as  situation  of  enemy  is  de 
veloped.  I  learn  Miles  [at  Harper's  Ferry]  surrendered  8  a.  m.  yes 
terday  unconditionally.  I  fear  his  resistance  was  not  as  stubborn  as  it 
might  have  been.  Had  he  held  the  Maryland  Heights  he  would  inevi 
tably  have  been  saved.  The  time  lost  on  account  of  the  fog  is  being 
occupied  in  getting  up  supplies,  for  the  want  of  which  many  of  our 

men  are  suffering. 

GEORGE  B.  MCCLELLAN, 
Major-  General,  Commanding. 


1 862.]  THE  BATTLE  AT  ANTIETAM  CREEK.  99 

So  Mr.  Lincoln  notified  Governor  Curtin  that  since 
sending  the  despatch  of  inquiry  he  had  heard  from 
McClellan,  and  that  nothing  of  importance  had  hap 
pened  on  the  i5th,  and  that  "this  morning  he  was  up 
with  the  enemy  at  Sharpsburg,  and  was  waiting  for  a 
heavy  fog  to  rise." 


THE    BATTLE    ON    THE    RIGHT. 

At  two  o'clock,  on  the  afternoon  of  the  i6th,  General 
Hooker  crossed  the  creek,  by  the  upper  bridge  and  the 
ford,  and  skirmished  sharply  with  the  enemy.  This 
firing  was  heard  at  Hagerstown,  and  how  it  was  inter 
preted,  and  what  was  expected  of  McClellan,  is  shown 
by  Governor  Curtin's  despatch  to  President  Lincoln  : 

HARRISBURG,  PA.,  September  16,  1862, 

—5  :3Q  P-  m. 
PRESIDENT  LINCOLN: 

The  following  just  received  from  Hagerstown:  "Jackson  has 
recrossed  the  Potomac,  and  General  McClellan  has  engaged  him 
with  a  large  force  a  few  miles  this  side  of  Sharpsburg,  ten  miles 
from  here.  The  whole  rebel  army  in  Maryland  will  probably  be 
annihilated  or  captured  to-night.  McClellan  is  on  the  battle-field.'1 

A.  G.  CURTIN, 
Governor  of  Pennsylvania. 

It  is  evident  that  when  the  Union  general  learned  of 
Miles's  surrender,  and  when  he  found  that  General  Lee 
was  facing  him  in  a  wonderfully  well  selected  position, 
he  lost  much  of  the  confidence  of  the  preceding  day, 
and  haunted  by  his  habitual  excessive  caution,  was  glad 
that  the  morning  of  the  i6th  was  foggy.  He  wanted  his 
reserves,  and  gave  them  time  to  come  up. 


100  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [September, 

In  the  mean  while  the  Confederate  forces  were  arriving 
from  Harper's  Ferry.  Jackson,  a  host  in  himself,  and 
a  part  of  his  command,  arrived  on  the  i6th,  and  were 
placed  on  the  extreme  left,  closing  the  space  between 
D.  H.  Hill's  line  and  the  Potomac.  General  Lee  was 
then  prepared  to  give  battle,  but  that  he  was  careful  to 
provide  against  defeat  is  shown  by  his  anxiety  regarding 
the  fords  of  the  Potomac.  He  wrote  his  commander  of 
artillery  as  follows  : 

SHARPSBURG. 

September  17,  1862 — 4  :  30  a.  m. 
BRIGADIER-GENERAL  PENDELTON, 

Commanding  Artillery : 

GENERAL  :  I  desire  you  to  keep  some  artillery  guarding  each  of  the 
fords  at  Williamsport,  Falling  Waters,  and  Shepherdstown,  and  have 
some  infantry  with  it  if  possible. 

Very  respectfully  yours, 

R.  E.  LEE. 

General. 

During  the  night  of  the  i6th  General  Mansfield 
crossed  to  Hooker's  support.  McClellan  planned  to 
"  attack  the  enemy's  left  with  the  corps  of  Generals 
Hooker  and  Mansfield,  supported  by  General  Sumner's, 
and,  if  necessary,  by  General  Franklin's  ;  and  as  soon 
as  matters  looked  favorably  there,  to  move  the  corps  of 
General  Burnside  against  the  enemy's  extreme  right 
upon  the  ridge  running  to  the  south  and  rear  of  Sharps- 
burg,  and  having  carried  that  position,  to  press  along 
the  crest  towards  our  right." 

On  the  morning  of  the  iyth  General  Sumner's  corps 
(the  Second)  was  on  the  eastern  bank  of  the  creek, 
ready  to  move  across  to  the  assistance  of  Hooker  and 
Mansfield  if  needed.  Fitz-John  Porter  had  come  up 
with  two  divisions,  and  occupied  the  main  turnpike, 


1 862.]  THE  BATTLE  AT  ANTIETAM  CREEK.  IOI 

which  communicated  with  the  rear  and  the  ammunition 
and  supply  trains.  General  Franklin's  corps  was 
advancing  from  Crampton's  Gap.  The  left  wing,  under 
General  Burnside,  had  been  moved  nearer  to  the  lower 
bridge. 

General  Lee  placed  all  his  artillery  on  a  high  hill  just 
east  of  Sharpsburg,  at  the  right  of  the  Boonsborough 
turnpike.  From  this  position  he  could  so  protect  his 
own  centre  from  Richardson  and  Sykes  that  his  infantry 
could  be  massed  to  meet  the  expected  attack  on  his  left. 

The  battle  opened  ere  the  stars  had  faded  from  the 
heavens.  The  Confederates  attacked  along  the  line  of 
the  First  corps.  To  meet  them,  Doubleday  advances 
Gibbon,  with  Phelps  and  Patrick  in  support,  and  fights 
fiercely ;  Meade,  under  an  enfilading  artillery  fire, 
moves  forward  in  the  corn-field,  and  with  the  aid  of 
Doubleday's  left  forces  Starke's  division  back  to  the 
Dunker  chapel ;  Ricketts  encounters  three  brigades  of 
D.  H.  Hill's  division,  and  is  hard  pressed.  Meade  sends 
assistance  to  Ricketts,  but  leaves  a  gap  in  his  own  line 
into  which  the  Confederates  rush,  but  are  compelled  to 
retreat  because  Meade  in  turn  is  assisted  by  Ricketts. 
The  enemy  try  to  turn  Doubleday's  flank,  but  are  com 
pelled  to  withdraw  ;  they  rally  again,  and  force  the  Fed 
eral  line  back.  General  Mansfield's  corps  is  ordered  in, 
and  its  commander  almost  immediately  falls,  mortally 
wounded.  General  Williams  assumes  command  of  the 
corps,  and  tries  to  flank  the  Dunkard  church,  but  is  met 
by  Hood,  whom  Lee  has  ordered  in  from  his  reserves. 
Hooker  is  wounded,  and  Meade  handles  the  First  corps. 
Sedgwick  arrives,  and  drives  Hood  back  beyond  the 
Dunker  chapel ;  but  the  other  two  divisions  of  Sumner's 
corps  are  not  at  hand,  and  the  troops  of  McLaws  and 


102  NIN7"H  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [September, 

Walker,  that  have  made  forced  marches  from  London 
and  Maryland  heights,  drive  Sedgwick  back.  Williams 
tries  to  take  the  Dunker  chapel,  and  cannot.  French 
advances  and  attempts  the  same  thing,  but  is  arrested  by 
an  enfilading  fire  from  the  artillery.  Richardson's 
division  goes  in  on  French's  left,  finds  the  enemy  massed 
in  the  sunken  road  henceforth  to  be  known  as  "Bloody 
Lane,"  flanks  their  position,  and  having  compelled  them 
after  desperate  fighting  to  abandon  it,  gets  almost  to  the 
Hagerstown  road,  but  is  then  obliged  to  fall  back,  and 
the  gallant  leader  is  mortally  wounded.  Hancock  takes 
his  place,  but  the  fight  on  the  right  and  centre  is  now,  at 
one  o'clock,  nearly  over,  and  McClellan  telegraphs  as 
follows  : 

HEAD-QUARTERS  ARMY  OF  THE  POTOMAC, 

September  17,  1862 — I  :  20  p.  m. 

(Received  5  p.  m.) 
MAJ.  GEN.  H.  W.  HALLECK, 

GENERAL-IN-CHIEF  : 

Please  take  military  possession  of  the  Chambersburg  £  Hagerstown 
railroad,  that  our  ammunition  and  supplies  may  be  hurried  up  without 
delay.  We  are  in  the  midst  of  the  most  terrible  battle  of  the  war — 
perhaps,  of  history.  Thus  far  it  looks  well,  but  I  have  great  odds 
against  me.  Hurry  up  all  the  troops  possible.  Our  loss  has  been 
terrific,  but  we  have  gained  much  ground.  I  have  thrown  the  mass  of 
the  army  on  the  left  flank.  Burnside  is  now  attacking  the  right,  and  I 
hold  my  small  reserve,  consisting  of  Porter's  [Fifth]  corps,  ready  to 
attack  the  centre  as  soon  as  the  flank  movements  are  developed.  I 
hope  that  God  will  give  us  a  glorious  victory. 

GEO.  B.  MCCLELLAN, 
Major-  General,  Commanding. 

The  Confederates,  having  received  additional  re-en 
forcements,  attacked  once  more  with  desperation,  but 
Franklin's  corps  arrived  opportunely,  and  checked  the 


1 862.]  THE  BATTLE  AT  ANTIETAM  CREEK.  1 03 

assault.  The  contest  north  of  the  Boonsborough  turn 
pike  was  practically  a  drawn  battle.  Lee  was  driven 
to  extremity  many  times,  but  something  invariably  hap 
pened  to  his  advantage,  or  failed  to  happen  to  his  dis 
advantage,  and  his  forces  held  their  ground. 


THE   ATTACK    ON    THE    LEFT. 

During  the  early  morning  there  was  a  fierce  artillery 
fire  on  the  Federal  left,  where  Gen.  Jacob  D.  Cox  was 
handling  the  Ninth  corps  under  the  direction  of  Gen 
eral  Burnside.  Opposed  to  him  was  General  Long- 
street,  who  occupied  the  high  and  nearly  precipitous 
cliffs  on  the  west  bank  of  the  creek.  It  was  ten  o'clock 
when  General  Burnside  received  orders  to  carry  the  nar 
row  bridge  in  his  front,  move  on  to  the  heights  above, 
and  advance  towards  Sharpsburg.  An  ordinary  enemy 
could  have  made  this  a  difficult  task,  but  with  Long- 
street  across  the  stream  it  was  doubly  hard.  This  gen 
eral  at  the  first  and  second  battles  of  Bull  Run  had  been 
proved  an  expert  in  the  disposition  of  artillery,  and  at 
Antietam,  where  he  was  favored  by  what  one,  at  least, 
has  called  a  "natural  Gibraltar,"  he  so  arranged  his 
batteries  that  he  could  concentrate  their  aim  on  Bridge 
No.  3  and  each  avenue  of  approach  to  it,  while  Toombs's 
infantry  and  sharpshooters  were  stationed  under  cover 
on  the  sides  and  crest  of  the  steep  slope  near  the  west 
ern  bank.  A  story  is  told  by  the  Atlanta  Constitution 
of  Longstreet  himself  serving  a  cannon  at  Antietam. 

The  bridge  which  General  Burnside  had  been  ordered 
to  carry  was  (quoting  from  General  Cox's  able  descrip 
tion)  "  a  stone  structure  of  three  arches,  with  stone 
parapet  above,  this  parapet  to  some  extent  flanking  the 


104  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [September, 

approach  to  the  bridge  at  either  end.  The  valley  in 
which  the  stream  runs  is  quite  narrow,  the  steep  slope 
on  the  right  bank  approaching  quite  to  the  water's  edge. 
On  this  slope  the  roadway  is  scarped,  running  both 
ways  from  the  bridge  end,  and  passing  to  the  higher 
land  above  by  ascending  through  ravines  above  and 
below;  the  other  ravine  being  some  six  hundred  yards 
above  the  bridge,  the  turn  is  about  half  that  distance 
below.  On  the  hillside  immediately  above  the  bridge 
was  a  strong  stone  fence  running  parallel  to  the  stream. 
The  turns  of  the  roadway  were  covered  by  rifle-pits 
and  breastworks  made  of  rails  and  stone,  all  of  which 
defences,  as  well  as  the  woods  which  covered  the  slope, 
were  filled  with  the  enemy's  infantry  and  sharpshooters. 
Besides  the  infantry  defences,  batteries  were  placed  to 
enfilade  the  bridge  and  all  its  approaches." 

At  South  Mountain  General  Burnside  as  commander 
of  the  left  wing  had  under  him  the  First  and  Ninth 
corps  ;  at  Antietam  he  had  only  the  Ninth,  and  that  was 
under  the  immediate  command  of  General  Cox.  He  had 
placed  General  Crook's  brigade  of  the  Kanawha  divis 
ion  and  General  Sturgis's  division  in  front  of  the  bridge. 
General  Rodman's  division  and  Colonel  Scammon's  bri 
gade  of  the  Kanawha  division  were  further  to  the  left, 
opposite  a  ford,  and  General  Willcox's  division  was  in 
support.  Most  of  the  artillery  was  stationed  on  and 
around  the  crest  of  the  hill  which  overlooked  the  bridge 
and  the  heights  above  and  beyond,  but  one  battery  of 
Dahlgren's  boat  howitzers  covered  the  ford  in  front  of 
General  Rodman. 

On  receiving  the  order  to  attack,  General  Cox  had 
the  Eleventh  Connecticut,  tinder  Colonel  Kingsbury, 
deployed  as  skirmishers.  They  were  followed  closely 


1 862 .]  THE  BA TTLE  AT  A NTIE TA M  CREEK.  105 

by  Crook's  brigade  and  Sturgis's  division.  The  Sec 
ond  Maryland  and  Sixth  New  Hampshire  fixed  bayo 
nets  and  attempted  to  charge  across  the  bridge,  but  the 
enemy  concentrated  a  heavy  fire  at  that  point  and  com 
pelled  them  to  draw  back.  They  tried  again,  but  were 
repulsed  a  second  time  with  heavy  loss,  and  were  com 
pelled  to  give  up  the  attempt. 

During  the  earlier  part  of  the  day  the  Ninth  New 
Hampshire  was  lying  just  below  the  bridge,  between  the 
roadway  and  the  creek,  behind  a  stout  rail  fence,  which 
somewhat  reduced  the  danger,  and  had  remained  there 
two  hours,  giving  and  receiving  a  galling  fusillade. 
About  twelve  o'clock  the  regiment  was  moved  across 
the  road  and  stationed  just  back  of  a  mound  directly  in 
front  of  the  bridge.  After  the  failure  of  the  first  assault 
ing  column  to  cross  the  bridge,  the  Second  brigade,  with 
the  Fifty-first  Pennsylvania  and  Fifty-first  New  York  in 
advance,  was  ordered  to  assault.  They  dashed  along 
the  road,  and  charging  across  the  bridge  drew  the 
enemy's  fire. 

Colonel  Fellows,  of  the  Ninth,  protected  from  the  rays 
of  the  Maryland  sun  by  an  old-fashioned  palm-leaf  hat, 
was  near  the  top  of  the  ridge  behind  which  his  regiment 
lay,  earnestly  watching  every  manoeuvre.  As  the  New 
York  and  Pennsylvania  regiments  drew  upon  themselves 
the  terrible  shower  of  Confederate  Minie  balls,  shells, 
cannon-balls,  and  railroad  iron,  Colonel  Fellows  saw 
his  opportunity,  and  waving  his  hat  as  he  shouted  the 
order,  "  Forward,  Ninth  New  Hampshire!  Follow  the 
old  palm-leaf!"  he  rushed  into  the  fray,  and  the  Ninth 
New  Hampshire  was  across  the  bridge  before  the  enemy 
could  again  concentrate  their  fire  ! 

The  Second  brigade  had  taken  the  road  to  the  right ; 


106  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [September, 

Colonel  Fellows  turned  to  the  left,  then  took  a  course 
directly  up  the  bluff,  and  fought  his  way  to  the  edge 
of  the  pasture-land  on  the  heights.  The  New  Hamp 
shire  Ninth  was  followed  by  the  Ninth  New  York,  then 
came  the  remainder  of  Sturgis's  division,  and  the  heights 
were  carried  !  Crook  followed  Sturgis,  and  formed  on 
his  right,  and  at  about  the  same  time  Rodman  carried 
the  ford  below  the  bridge  and  took  position  on  Sturgis's 
left. 

The  Ninth  corps  had  done  the  work  assigned  it. 
Sturgis's  and  Rodman's  divisions,  with  Crook's  brigade, 
had  thus  far  borne  the  brunt  of  the  battle,  and  had  done 
some  stubborn  fighting, — so  stubborn  that  they  were 
now  facing  the  enemy  with  but  little  ammunition  ;  but 
General  Willcox's  division  coming  to  the  front,  the 
enemy  on  the  right  was  forced  back  nearly  into  Sharps- 
burg.  Meanwhile  Rodman,  on  the  left,  was  struggling 
hard,  both  to  keep  his  connection  with  Willcox  and  to 
prevent  the  enemy  from  coming  in  on  his  flank. 

The  bridge  had  been  carried  at  one  o'clock,  and  it  was 
now  half-past  two.  Messages  were  sent  to  General 
McClellan  asking  him  for  re-enforcements,  but  no  help 
was  to  be  had  ;  while  the  enemy  was  re-enforced  by 
Gen.  A.  P.  Hill's  division  of  Jackson's  corps,  and  by 
detachments  from  the  left  wing.  At  about  four  o'clock 
General  Cox  withdrew  his  forces  from  their  advanced 
position  to  the  ridge  along  the  Antietam.  The  Confed 
erates  did  not  pursue,  and  the  battle  was  over.  The 
honorable  task  of  guarding  the  dearly  bought  bridge  for 
the  night  was  assigned  to  the  Ninth  New  Hampshire. 


i862.]  THE  BATTLE  AT  ANTIETAM  CREEK.  107 

GLINTS   FROM  PARTICIPANTS. 

The  story  of  the  battle  as  a  whole  has  been  given,  but 
a  most  graphic  portrayal  of  the  part  borne  by  the  Ninth 
New  Hampshire  on  that  bloody  field  is  furnished  by  the 
regimental  correspondent  of  the  Manchester  Daily 
Mirror,  as  follows  : 

LETTER    FROM    THE    NINTH    REGIMENT. — OFFICIAL    LIST    OF 
KILLED,  WOUNDED,  AND  MISSING. 

"ANTIETAM,  NEAR  SHARPSBURG,  MD., 

September  20,  1862. 

EDITOR  MIRROR  :  The  most  desperate  of  the  battles 
fought  on  this  continent  has  just  transpired  around  the 
ground  where  I  am  now  writing,  amid  the  scenes  that 
line  the  field  of  carnage  and  destruction.  The  i7th  and 
i8th  of  September  will  long  be  remembered  as  the  great 
days  when  the  entire  force  of  the  rebel  army  at  last  met 
the  Union  army  and  we  gained  a  great  and  brilliant 
victory. 

"It  is  now  two  days  since  the  great  battle,  and  we 
have  only  just  got  particulars  enough  together  to  give 
you  some  connected  details  of  the  battle,  and  we  have 
this  moment  got  the  list  of  killed  and  wounded  (official) 
in  all  our  New  Hampshire  regiments  engaged  in  this 
army  corps. 

"  The  rebel  army  occupied  Sharpsburg  on  Tuesday, 
and  was  in  a  badly  demoralized  condition,  having  re 
treated  in  haste  from  South  Mountain,  where  they  were 
so  badly  whipped.  They  had  here  resolved  to  make  a 
stand  and  pitch  all  their  forces  into  one  mighty  struggle, 
for  Lee,  Longstreet,  and  Jackson  had  here  united  their 
forces  from  Hagerstown  and  Harper's  Ferry. 


I08  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE,  [September, 

"  Tuesday  evening  Generals  Hooker  and  Sumner 
posted  their  corps  d'armes  on  several  hills  overlook 
ing  the  Antietam  river,  composing  the  extreme  right, 
and  were  ready  to  offer  battle ;  the  division  of  General 
Sykes  and  several  other  corps  occupied  the  centre  of  the 
grand  line  of  battle,  while  the  gallant  corps  of  Burnside 
occupied  the  extreme  left.  The  line  of  battle  formed 
was  not  less  than  eight  miles  long,  and  from  the  top  of 
one  hill  near  by,  the  line  for  nearly  five  miles  could  be 
seen  with  the  naked  eye,  every  hill  and  valley  black 
with  men,  and  the  preparations  for  the  great  battle 
going  on  with  great  haste.  Near  us  were  50,000  men, 
packed  in  solid  columns  ready  for  the  morrow,  with 
their  columns  sub-divided  by  the  usual  proportion  of 
artillery,  cavalry,  and  infantry.  Few  men  now  living 
will  ever  behold  so  grand  a  sight  again. 

"The  field  of  Waterloo  before  the  battle,  or  of  Auster- 
litz,  Dresden,  or  Borodino,  could  not  have  been  so  grand 
from  the  fact  that  the  surrounding  country  would  not 
admit  it,  as  there  were  no  high  hills  from  which  a  view 
of  the  army  and  conflict  could  be  obtained.  At  day 
light  Wednesday  morning,  September  17,  the  thunder 
of  artillery  began  to  echo  over  the  hills  and  valleys,  and 
soon  the  clatter  of  cavalry  and  the  sharp  crack  of  infan 
try  was  borne  along  the  deep  ravines,  and  came  like  the 
artillery  of  heaven  over  the  hills  from  the  rebel  lines  of 
battle.  The  smoke  of  battle  fairly  obscured  the  rays  of 
the  sun,  and  everything  was  wreathed  in  smoke,  and 
massive  clouds  of  fire  and  smoke,  all  mixed  in  one 
heavy  cloud,  hung  over  the  hundred  pieces  of  artillery 
that  were  belching  out  their  thunder  until  the  earth  fairly 
trembled  and  the  hills  seemed  to  rock  with  their  terrible 
concussion  and  deafening  roar. 


i862.]  THE  BATTLE  AT  ANTIETAM  CREEK.  109 

"The  extreme  right  wing  of  the  army  commenced  soon 
after  sunrise,  and  Hooker's  and  Sumner's  veterans  were 
placed  in  the  opening  contest.  Then  General  Sykes 
advanced  with  the  centre,  and  General  McClellan  was 
here,  moving  in  all  directions,  and  managed  this  part  of 
the  army.  The  entire  left  was  commanded  by  General 
Burnside,  the  old  hero  that  never  yet  lost  a  battle.  In 
solid  column  this  mighty  army  advanced  from  its  posi 
tion  until,  three  miles  from  Sharpsburg,  it  gained,  on 
the  left,  the  banks  of  Antietam  creek,  which  is  a  muddy 
river  about  the  size  of  the  Piscataquog  where  it  empties 
into  the  Merrimack.  The  rebels  began  to  mass  their 
troops  on  our  left  at  an  early  hour,  and  it  seemed  evi 
dent  that  they  would  cross  the  river  where  a  fine  stone 
bridge  spanned  the  creek.  The  First  brigade,  Second 
division,  commanded  by  that  veteran  war-horse,  Gen. 
James  Nagle,  was  ordered  at  once  to  the  bridge,  and 
the  whole  brigade  rushed  to  the  scene  of  conflict  and 
carnage  with  such  a  yell  of  delight  that  a  bystander 
would  have  thought  they  were  going  to  a  festival.  In 
this  brigade  are  the  Sixth  and  Ninth  New  Hampshire 
volunteers,  and  they  were  brought  into  a  scene  of  hor 
ror  only  equalled  at  Napoleon's  famous  battle  at  the 
bridge  of  Lodi.  The  stone  bridge  across  the  creek 
here  is  at  the  intersection  of  two  roads,  where  a  deep 
and  precipitous  ravine  on  our  side  of  the  river  was 
directly  in  front  of  the  bridge  where  several  regiments 
of  rebel  infantry  were  pouring  a  deadly  fire  into  our  gal 
lant  troops.  In  a  ploughed  field  near  this  bluff  the  Ninth 
regiment,  New  Hampshire  volunteers,  were  ordered  to 
fall  flat  on  their  faces  and  load  and  fire  at  the  rebels  con 
cealed  in  the  heavy  underbrush  across  the  river,  where 
its  banks  rose  to  a  height  of  two  hundred  feet  and  were 


110  NINTH  NE  W  HA  MPSHIRE.  [S eptember, 

covered  by  a  deep  forest.  A  deadly  fire  came  trans 
versely  from  the  enemy,  both  from  the  opposite  banks 
of  the  river  and  the  bridge,  which  is  here  in  an  oblique 
direction  from  our  position.  For  two  hours  there  was 
never  sharper  musketry  heard  or  seen,  and  New  Hamp 
shire  blood  flowed  freely  in  the  contest.  The  Ninth 
suffered  terribly  but  never  flinched,  and  every  man  stood 
before  the  awful  carnage  without  one  thought  of  yielding. 
"  Colonel  Fellows  was  everywhere  to  be  seen,  cheer 
ing  his  men  and  making  them  efficient.  His  splendid 

o  &  * 

knowledge  of  military  affairs  and  tactics  was  here  hand 
somely  displayed,  and  it  was  the  remark  of  all  in  the 
division  that  he  headed  the  regiment  with  remarkable 
skill,  and  showed  a  perfect  disregard  of  life,  rushing  in 
wherever  he  could  be  of  service,  and  displaying  both 
courage,  coolness,  and  valor.  He  was  complimented  on 
all  sides,  and  deserves  great  credit  for  sustaining  at  this 
hazardous  point  the  reputation  of  New  Hampshire  sol 
diers,  and  will  never  be  forgotten  by  his  men. 

"  Lieutenant-Colonel  Titus  seized  the  gun  of  a  man 
who  fell  dead  by  his  side,  and  used  it  through  most  of 
the  fight,  until  a  Minie  ball  from  a  rebel  sharpshooter 
struck  him  in  the  side  and  entered  his  shoulder,  produc 
ing  a  severe  wound,  and  he  was  taken  from  the  field. 
He  is  now  more  comfortable,  though  badly  wounded. 

"The  chaplain  and  our  band  were  very  serviceable 
in  taking  care  of  the  wounded,  and  Surgeon  Webster,  of 
Manchester,  displayed  remarkable  ability  in  dressing 
the  wounds  of  our  soldiers,  and  was  as  cool  as  a  sum 
mer's  morning  in  the  midst  of  the  blood  and  carnage 
around  him.  Captain  Whitfield,  of  Francestown,  and 
also  Captain  Cooper,  were  wounded  and  carried  to  the 
rear,  and  many  others  fell  wounded  around  them. 


SURGEON  WILLIAM  A.  WEBSTER. 


i862.]  THE  BATTLE  AT  ANTIETAM  CREEK.  ill 

"The  Sixth  New  Hampshire  regiment  was  fighting 
side  by  side  with  the  Ninth,  but  not  being  in  quite  so 
perilous  a  position  did  not  suffer  so  severely.  The  Sixth 
behaved  nobly  in  the  battle,  and  did  themselves  great 
credit. 

"After  the  fight  had  been  prolonged  at  the  bridge 
from  ten  in  the  forenoon  to  two  in  the  afternoon,  the 
First  brigade  became  nearly  out  of  ammunition,  and 
was  ordered  to  the  rear,  when  the  Second  brigade  of 
General  Sturgis's  division  was  ordered  up  to  charge  the 
bridge  ;  and  with  plenty  of  ammunition  and  pluck  they 
went  over,  with  our  brigade  next  in  rear,  and  the  two 
brigades  planted  their  flags  on  the  heights  towards 
Sharpsburg,  a  half  mile  from  the  river. 

"  The  yells  of  the  Ninth  and  Sixth  were  perfectly  ter 
rific  as  the  rebel  line  gave  way  and  they  went  over  the 
bridge  and  up  the  steep  bank  on  the  other  side.  Here 
the  fight  was  continued  until  after  dark,  and  on  the 
Sixth  and  Ninth  regiments  a  perfect  tempest  of  grape, 
canister,  and  shell  was  raining  for  hours,  wounding 
many  of  our  men,  and  putting  them  where  they  could 
not  charge  on  their  foe, — for  they  were  put  in  the  rear  to 
rest, — and  thousands  of  fresh  troops  rushed  ahead  of 
them  into  the  fight  nearer  Sharpsburg  village. 

"  On  the  morning  of  the  i8th  it  was  generally 
expected  that  the  great  battle  would  be  renewed,  but  the 
rebels  had  given  way  along  their  line,  even  beyond 
where  they  had  been  driven  during  the  day,  and  did  not 
seem  disposed  to  fight,  and  our  troops  were  almost  para 
lyzed  with  exhaustion  and  fatigue  from  the  day  previous, 
and  sleeping  on  their  arms  during  the  night.  Sharp 
skirmishing  was  kept  up,  however,  all  the  forenoon,  but 
no  general  battle  took  place. 


112  NINTH  NE  W  HAMPSHIRE.  [September, 

"  All  day  our  men  were  engaged  in  burying  our  dead 
and  the  piles  of  rebels  that  lay  dead  on  the  ground  we 
gained.  At  the  bridge  were  piles  of  men  and  horses,  in 
heaps  together ;  some  rebels  seemed  to  have,  died  in  the 
embrace  of  our  own  soldiers,  and  the  wounds  from  shot 
and  shell  presented  a  ghastly  sight.  Large  numbers  of 
soldiers  have  been  detailed  to  bury  all  our  dead,  and  it 
took  them  two  days  to  do  it.  Our  wounded  are  well 
cared  for,  and  have  excellent  attention.  Good  judges 
estimate  our  loss  in  killed  and  wounded  at  8,000,  and 
the  rebel  loss  at  14,000. 

"  Official  list  of  casualties  in  the  Ninth  New  Hamp 
shire  volunteers  in  the  Battle  of  Antietam  Bridge,  Sep 
tember  i yth  and  i8th,  1862  : 

"  Company  A. — Wounded  :  B.  Wadleigh,  Exeter,  in 
hand;  John  McDermott,  Kingston,  thumb.  Missing: 
L.  H.  Chase,  Northfield. 

"  Company  B. — Wounded:  James  Aldrich,  Lisbon, 
slightly,  in  eye  ;  H.  Doe,  Grafton,  hand  ;  Jerome  Gay, 
Canaan,  breast;  George  Muzzey,  Weare,  lost  finger; 
Elijah  P.  Purington,  Weare,  left  arm,  since  amputated 
and  doing  well ;  Matthew  P.  Tennant,  Merrimack,  leg  ; 
Charles  H.  Thompson,  Gilmanton,  slight;  R.  W. 
Swain,  Gilford,  in  leg. 

"  Company  C. — Wounded  :  Sergeant  T.  J.  Richards, 
Great  Falls,  arm;  Millet  W.  Roberts,  Milton,  lost 
thumb. 

"  Company  D. — Killed  :  Joseph  C.  Batchelder,  Deer- 
field.  Wounded  :  Corporal  Henry  Boothby,  Conway, 
arm;  Charles  F.  Hall,  Dover,  in  arm,  slight;  Edward 
Flanagan,  Salmon  Falls,  mortally  wounded  and  miss 
ing;  J.  Doherty,  Salmon  Falls,  slight,  in  foot;  Moses  D. 
French,  Exeter,  slight,  in  hand;  Samuel  Page,  Exeter, 


i862.]  THE  BA  TTLE  A  T  ANT1E TAM  CREEK.  113 

slight,  in  back  ;  James  Quimby,  Great  Falls,  slight,  in 
head. 

44  Company  E. — Missing:  Corporal  Albert  H.  Taft, 
Nelson ;  Francis  O'Reilley,  Canterbury.  None  killed 
or  wounded. 

"  Company  F. — Killed  :  Corporal  C.  M.  Noyes,  Great 
Falls.  Wounded:  G.  E.  Hubbard,  Great  Falls,  leg 
amputated;  J.  N.  Annis,  Rumney,  badly  wounded;  D. 
H.  Winship,  Hanover,  slightly. 

"  Company  G. — Killed:  C.  B.  Marvin,  Claremont ; 
G.  W.  Russell,  Claremont.  Wounded:  Capt.  S.  O. 
Whitfield,  Francestown,  severe  wound  in  foot  by  the 
bursting  of  a  shell;  A.  J.  Fletcher,  Lempster,  in  shoul 
der,  slight;  H.  G.  Kendall,  Charlestown,  hand,  slight; 
W.  H.  Royce,  Charlestown,  head.  Missing  :  J.  Rugg, 
Horace  Ellenwood,  Amos  Bradford,  Caleb  Bradford, 
John  A.  Peaslee,  G.  R.  Peaslee. 

"  Company  H. — Wounded  :  John  Thompson,  Roches 
ter,  in  foot ;  Michael  Hester,  Rochester,  in  arm ;  First 
Sergt.  H.  Baxter  Quimby,  Lisbon,  in  side ;  Corporal 
Mark  Staples,  Whitefield,  lost  thumb  ;  William  Howard, 
Rochester,  lost  thumb. 

44  Company  I. — Killed:  George  D.  Fox,  Keene. 
Wounded  :  First  Lieut.  Jacob  Green,  Keene,  in  hand  ; 
Joseph  Jolley,  Keene,  in  hand  ;  Willis  Reason,  Swanzey, 
ankle  ;  L.  W.  Aldrich,  2d,  Westmoreland,  hand ;  George 
W.  McClure,  Keene,  head,  bad;  E.  H.  Streeter,  Ches 
terfield,  foot;  W.  C.  Aiken,  Westmoreland,  arm ;  W.  H. 
Hartwell,  Keene,  head;  E.  W.  Messenger,  head, 
severe;  Michael  Sullivan,  Keene,  hand,  slight;  First 
Sergt.  C.  W.  Wilcox,  side,  slight. 

"  Company  K. — Killed  :  Almond  A.  Stoddard,  Unity. 
Wounded :  Capt.  John  B.  Cooper,  Newport,  slightly,  in 

VIII 


114  NINTH  NE  W  HAMPSHIRE.  [September, 

foot;  Sergt.  Charles  Little,  slightly,  in  ankle;  Sergt. 
Oilman  Leavitt,  Concord,  wrist;  William  H.  Perry, 
Newport,  piece  of  shell  in  side ;  Samuel  Meader,  Tam- 
worth,  leg,  slightly." 

There  have  been  many  conflicting  statements  regard 
ing  the  order  in  which  the  several  regiments  of  the 
Second  division,  Ninth  corps,  reached  and  passed  over 
the  stubbornly  defended  bridge.  On  this  point  the  state 
ment  of  Colonel  Fellows  is  authority  enough  for  the 
Ninth  New  Hampshire.  In  a  letter  to  the  Boston 
Journal Qi  February  8,  1893,  Colonel  Fellows  says, — 

"  At  the  Battle  of  Antietam  the  Second  division,  Ninth 
corps,  was  ordered  to  assault  and  carry  the  stone  bridge. 
This  division  at  that  time  was  commanded  by  Brig.  Gen. 
Samuel  D.  Sturgis,  and  composed  of  the  First  brigade, 
Brig.  Gen.  James  Nagle,  composed  of  the  Second  Mary 
land,  Lieut.  Col.  J.  Eugene  Duryea  ;  Sixth  New  Hamp 
shire,  Col.  Simon  G.  Griffin  ;  Ninth  New  Hampshire, 
Col.  Enoch  Q^  Fellows ;  Forty-eighth  Pennsylvania, 
Lieut.  Col.  Joshua  K.  Sigfried ;  the  Second  brigade, 
Brig.  Gen.  Edward  Ferrero,  composed  of  the  Twenty- 
first  Massachusetts,  Col.  William  T.  Clark;  Thirty-fifth 
Massachusetts,  Col.  Edward  A.  Wild  and  Lieut.  Col. 
Samuel  Carruth  ;  Fifty-first  New  York,  Col.  Robert  B. 
Potter  ;  Fifty-first  Pennsylvania,  Col.  John  F.  Hartranft ; 
besides  two  batteries  of  artillery,  commanded  by  Capt. 
George  W.  Durell  and  Capt.  Joseph  C.  dark,  Jr. 

"  The  different  regiments  of  the  division  took  up  posi 
tions  not  far  from  the  bridge  about  10  a.  m.,  but  before 
the  assault  was  successful  became  massed  in  close  prox 
imity.  About  i  p.  m.,  the  successful  assault  was  made, 
led  by  the  Fifty-first  Pennsylvania,  Col.  John  F.  Hart- 


CAPT.  OSCAR  D.  ROBINSON,  Co.  E. 


1 862.]  THE  BA  TTLE  A  T  ANTIE  TAM  CREEK.  115 

ranft  commanding,  and  followed  in  quick  succession  by 
the  other  regiments  of  the  division  in  close  column,  with 
out  any  break  or  interval  whatever." 

In  a  letter  to  the  Lebanon  (N.  H.)  Free  Press,  a  sol 
dier  of  the  Ninth  regiment  who  has  since  the  war  taken 
a  leading  position  among  the  educators  of  the  United 
States,  and  whose  habit  of  close  observation  and  accu 
rate  statement  is  proverbial  with  his  comrades,  tells  the 
same  general  story,  though  differing  in  details,  thus  : 

"  ANTIETAM  CREEK,  NEAR  SHARPSBURG, 

Sept.  23. 

"  .  .  .  Tuesday  night  we  lay  on  our  arms,  and 
Wednesday  at  9  a.  m.  were  called  into  line  and  moved 
in  the  direction  of  heavy  firing.  The  rebels,  as  usual, 
had  chosen  a  splendid  position.  .  .  .  As  on  Sun 
day,  we  were  ordered  to  the  left.  The  enemy  had  here 
crossed  the  little  stone  bridge  spanning  the  Antietam 
creek,  and  taken  position  on  the  table-lands  beyond. 

"The  creek  flowed  in  a  ravine,  and  though  fordable 
in  regard  to  depth,  yet  the  steep  and  rugged  bank  on 
the  other  side  rendered  the  enemy's  position  unapproach 
able,  except  by  crossing  the  bridge  and  filing  up  the 
narrow  wagon-road.  Our  work  was  to  assist  in  holding 
the  rebels  from  destroying  or  recrossing  the  bridge,  and 
to  gain  possession  of  the  same  if  possible.  The  lines  of 
infantry  were  formed  on  each  side  the  creek,  and  for 
more  than  two  hours  one  continued  roll  of  musketry  was 
kept  up  along  the  lines,  the  rebels  having  the  advantage 
of  high  ground  and  a  narrow  piece  of  heavy  woodland 
as  a  breastwork.  The  contest  was  desperate. 

"  Our  troops  fought  like  those  determined  to  conquer. 
Twice  was  the  attempt  made  to  charge  across  the  bridge, 


1 1 6  NINTH  NE  W  HAMPSHIRE.  [September, 

and  twice  the  noble  fellows  were  compelled  to  fall  back 
under  a  galling  fire  which  laid  low  many  of  our  brave 
heroes.  A  third  attempt  was  made,  and  not  in  vain. 
The  bridge  and  the  day  were  ours,  and  soon  General 
Burnside  and  staff  rode  across  amid  the  cheers  of  the 
victorious  forces.  The  New  Hampshire  Ninth  was  one 
of  the  first  to  follow,  leaving  behind  our  brave  and 
beloved  Lieutenant-Colonel  Titus,  wounded  in  the 
shoulder,  and  several  of  his  brave  fellows.  We  were 
now  separated  from  the  rest  of  our  brigade,  and  it  was 
our  misfortune  several  times  during  the  day  to  come 
under  a  most  galling  fire  from  the  rebel  batteries. 

"  About  sunset  we  were  ordered  to  a  large  corn-field 
supposed  to  be  thickly  swarming  with  rebels,  which  we 
afterwards  learned  to  be  true.  As  we  approached  the 
field  we  were  obliged  to  lie  down  to  escape  the  showers 
of  grape  and  bursting  shell.  We  were  soon  covered  by 
a  small  battery,  which  we  hoped  would  silence  theirs 
and  give  us  an  opportunity  for  action  ;  but  to  our  disap 
pointment,  after  firing  a  few  shots  they  withdrew,  as  we 
afterwards  learned,  for  want  of  ammunition,  leaving  us 
entirely  unprotected  and  the  enemy  advancing  upon  us 
in  superior  force.  The  regiments  at  our  right  and  left 
also  withdrew,  and  the  general  sent  a  verbal  dispatch  to 
our  colonel  that  our  only  safety  was  in  reaching  the  ford. 

["  Hearsay  only,"  is  the  authority  for  the  closing 
statement  in  the  preceding  paragraph.] 

"  We  immediately  fell  back  to  the  creek  under  a  per 
fect  shower  of  grape  and  canister,  which  wounded  sev 
eral  of  our  men,  and  few  of  us  came  over  '  dry  shod.' 

"  It  was  late  at  night  before  we  again  got  organized, 
and  hence  we  obtained  but  little  sleep.  Thursday,  the 
infantry  was  not  engaged  on  the  left,  except  in  skirmish- 


1 862.]  THE  BATTLE  AT  ANTIETAM  CREEK.  117 

ing.  Our  force  was  small,  but  we  threw  out  a  heavy 
picket  force  and  kept  the  enemy  ignorant  of  our  true 
condition.  We  lay  all  day  close  to  the  ground  under 
the  brow  of  a  hill,  and  not  more  than  two  hundred  rods 
from  the  enemy.  At  night  we  were  relieved,  and  fell 
back  to  camp.  Friday  the  rebels  had  retreated,  leaving 
behind  a  powerful  rear-guard,  which  engaged  our  artil 
lery  through  the  day.  We  advanced  three  or  four  miles 
in  the  direction  of  Harper's  Ferry,  and  since  then  have 
enjoyed  the  great  luxury  of  a  short  rest. 

''This  has  doubtless  been  one  of  the  greatest  battles 
of  the  campaign,  its  line  extending  nearly  ten  miles,  and 
conducted  by  the  greatest  generals  on  both  sides.  I 
have  passed  over  some  portions  of  the  left,  and  it  pre 
sents  a  spectacle  which  I  have  no  desire  to  see  repeated. 
Broken  implements  of  war,  mutilated  and  stiffened 
bodies,  and  steeds  which  had  fallen  beneath  their 
riders  no  more  to  rise,  strewed  the  ground  for  miles. 
Many  a  noble  youth  has  here  lain  down  in  his  final 
sleep,  whose  beloved  mother  or  cherished  sister  will 
never  weep  at  his  grave ;  but  they  have  nobly  per 
formed  their  duty, — bravely  fought  and  nobly  fell, 
and  the  blessings  accruing  to  posterity  through  this 
bloody  struggle  shall  be  their  living  eulogies.  The 
entire  loss  I  am  unable  to  state.  It  is  said  '  our  men 
lay  in  heaps,  and  the  rebels  lay  heaps  on  heaps'." 


ON    THE    BLUFFS. 

The  historian  of  the  Sixth  New  Hampshire,  speaking 
of  the  order  in  which  the  different  regiments  formed  on 
the  right  bank,  after  the  bridge  had  been  carried,  says, — 
"The  Sixth  advanced  up  the  bluff  opposite  the  bridge, 


Il8  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [September, 

and  was  the  first  to  form  in  line  on  the  crest  of  the  ridge, 
where  it  received  a  storm  of  shot  and  shell  from  the 
enemy's  batteries  in  the  distance."  This  statement  is 
doubtless  correct,  in  the  sense  that  there  were  no  other 
regiments  formed  in  sight  of  the  Sixth  when  its  men 
reached  the  crest  of  the  bluff,  but  the  same,  if  not  more, 
may  be  said  of  the  Ninth.  There  were  no  blue  coats  or 
Federal  colors  in  sight  when  the  men  of  the  Ninth  New 
Hampshire,  though  soldiers  of  only  three  weeks'  dura 
tion,  lined  up  on  the  eastern  edge  of  the  bluff  and  ad 
vanced  to  meet  Toombs's  Confederates,  who  were  com 
ing  in  on  their  left  flank,  and  notwithstanding  the  ter 
rific  fire  of  muskets  and  heavy  guns,  drove  them  to 
cover.  The  Ninth  New  Hampshire  prepared  the  way 
for  the  Ninth  New  York,  who,  coming  in  from  the  left, 
and  then  passing  the  soldiers  from  the  Granite  state  in 
the  rear,  made  their  daring,  resistless,  and  ever  since 
famous,  charge  on  a  Confederate  battery,  capturing, 
and  for  a  time  holding,  the  guns  in  spite  of  a  heavy  fire 
and  the  onslaught  of  vastly  superior  numbers. 

After  the  New  Hampshire  heroes  had  played  their  part 
in  the  great  tragedy,  they  were  placed,  with  the  rest  of 
their  division,  in  reserve.  The  long  day  of  blood  and 
strife  was  drawing  to  a  close.  How  fierce  and  bitter  the 
contest  had  been,  a  glance  over  the  field  and  then  at  the 
decimated  ranks  of  the  army  showed.  The  morning 
sunshine  had  thrown  its  glad  beams  over  fields  of  waving 
corn  and  valleys  teeming  with  life  and  beauty.  That 
same  sun,  as  it  slowly  sank  behind  the  mountains  that 
night,  was  veiled  in  the  thick  clouds  of  smoke  that  rose 
from  the  field  of  battle,  as  if  unwilling  to  look  upon  the 
ruin  and  devastation  of  the  fair  scene.  All  around  were 
the  dead  and  wounded  and  the  accoutrements  of  war. 


i862.]  THE  BATTLE  AT  ANTIETAM  CREEK.  lip 

The  tall  corn  that  had  rustled  its  gleaming  blades  so 
proudly  in  the  morning  breeze  was  now  trodden  under 
foot,  and  served  that  night  in  lieu  of  a  better  couch  to 
many  a  poor  fellow. 


COUNTING  THE  COST. 

What  better  test  of  the  bravery  and  courage  of  its 
men  can  a  regiment  offer  than  its  list  of  killed  and 
wounded  ?  When  the  men  of  the  Ninth  New  Hamp 
shire  again  answered  the  roll-call,  an  ominous  silence 
followed  the  reading  of  many  a  name.  In  addition  to 
the  list  given  in  the  Mirror  correspondence,  these  have 
been  gleaned  from  other  sources  : 

Wounded. — Company  A,  Charles  Wallace  ;  Company 
G,  Corp.  Lorenzo  M.  Upham  ;  Company  H,  Stephen 
G.  Symister. 

Just  as  at  South  Mountain,  so  at  Antietam  the  mem 
bers  of  the  regimental  band  found  plenty  to  do  in  their 
humane  though  dangerous  task  of  bearing  the  wounded 
from  the  field.  One  of  the  "  faithful"  thus  writes  of  the 
day's  doings  : 

"The  engagement  [artillery]  began  about  seven 
o'clock  this  morning.  Taking  our  stretchers  and  mov 
ing  forward,  we  found,  on  the  edge  of  a  corn-field,  a 
member  of  Company  I  named  Messenger,  badly 
wounded  in  the  head,  and  carried  him  to  the  hospital. 
By  the  time  we  got  back  the  brigade  had  become  en 
gaged,  and  several  had  been  wounded,  the  brigade  at 
this  time  being  stationed  near  the  stone  bridge. 

"Dr.  Webster  had  established  a  hospital,  to  the  left 
and  lower  down,  in  an  old  barn,  and  thither  we  were 


I2O  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [September, 

ordered  to  bear  the  wounded,  of  whom  there  were  now  a 
great  many.  Simonds  and  myself  brought  thirteen 
men  from  our  own  and  other  regiments  without  stopping, 
and  I  doubt  not  that  the  other  boys  were  equally  as  busy. 
In  no  other  battle  afterward,  I  think,  were  we  kept  so 
closely  at  work,  none  of  us  resting  all  day." 

The  wounding  of  Private  E.  M.  Messenger  was  one 
of  the  remarkable  incidents  of  the  battle.  Near  the 
stone  bridge,  in  the  position  first  occupied  by  the  regi 
ment  in  this  action,  Private  Messenger,  while  in  the  act 
of  firing,  received  two  wounds  from  the  same  bullet. 
The  ball  carried  away  a  portion  of  the  left  thumb,  and 
then  entering  the  forehead  over  the  right  eye,  passed  out 
in  front  of  the  right  ear,  felling  him  to  the  ground. 
With  the  blood  streaming  from  these  wounds,  he  was 
removed  from  the  field  for  dead,  and  was  mourned  as 
the  first  man  killed  instantly  in  Company  I.  Later  in 
the  day,  however,  he  was  discovered  to  be  alive,  and 
was  carried  to  the  Miller  farm-house,  where  he  slowly 
recovered.  To-day  he  suffers  but  little  inconvenience 
from  these  wounds,  except  from  loss  of  sight  of  the  right 
eye. 

Capt.  Charles  W.  Edgerly  contributes  the  following 
incident  of  heroic  conduct : 

"  On  the  i8th  day  of  September,  1862,  the  next  day 
after  the  great  battle  of  Antietam,  the  Ninth  New  Hamp 
shire  was  deployed  as  skirmishers,  and  at  times  the  fir 
ing  between  our  lines  and  the  rebels'  was  both  rapid  and 
heavy.  In  front  of  us  (Company  H)  was  a  plowed  field, 
and  about  ten  o'clock  in  the  forenoon,  while  the  bullets 
were  whistling  over  our  heads,  I  heard  a  voice  that 
sounded  like  a  child  crying  for  help,  and  it  appeared  to 
come  from  the  plowed  field  in  our  front.  Every  few 


1 862.]  THE  BA  TTLE  A  T  ANTIE  TAM  CREEK.  121 

minutes  would  come  the  cry  for  help,  and  at  last  I  saw  a 
head  lifted  above  the  ground  about  thirty  yards  in  front 
of  my  post.  One  of  my  men,  John  W.  Garland,  also 
saw  this  at  the  same  time,  but  in  a  moment  more  the 
head  dropped  back  out  of  sight,  though  we  could  still 
locate  the  place  where  it  had  appeared  by  a  small  tree 
near  by. 

"  Whoever  it  was  that  was  making  this  pitiful  appeal, 
I  wanted  to  rescue  him,  but  what  with  the  sharpshooters 
in  the  trees  and  the  rebels  behind  a  stone  wall  it  looked 
risky.  Garland  promptly  volunteered  to  go  and  get  him, 
but  I  said  that  while  I  would  be  very  glad  to  have  him 
save  the  boy  I  was  afraid  he  himself  would  get  shot,  and 
I  would  not  order  him  or  any  other  man  to  go  where  I 
was  afraid  to  lead.  He  insisted  on  at  least  making  the 
attempt,  and  by  my  order  took  off  his  knapsack.  Start 
ing  on  the  run,  he  quickly  reached  the  spot,  picked  up 
the  boy,  for  such  he  proved  to  be,  and  in  a  trice  came 
back  to  my  post  and  laid  the  boy  down  at  my  feet. 

"I  do  n't  think  a  single  shot  was  fired  at  Garland, 
either  in  going  or  returning.  The  poor  little  fellow  for 
whom  he  had  so  bravely  risked  his  life  was  badly  wound 
ed  in  his  leg,  and  had  lain  upon  the  cold,  bare  ground 
since  the  previous  afternoon.  In  answer  to  my  questions 
he  said  that  he  belonged  to  the  Eighth  Connecticut,  and 
that  his  regiment  had  retreated  and  left  him  on  the  field. 

"I  told  Garland  then  and  there  that  his  deed  was  a 
heroic  one,  and  as  long  as  I  lived  to  tell  the  story  he 
should  have  the  credit  that  belonged  to  him.  At  my 
request  he  took  the  boy  on  his  back  and  carried  him  to 
the  field  hospital  a  quarter  of  a  mile  away.  Soon  after 
this  Garland  was  himself  taken  sick,  but  refused  to  go  to 
the  hospital,  keeping  with  his  company  until  we  arrived 


122  NINTH  NE  W  HA MPSHIRE.  [September, 

at  Berlin,  near  Harper's  Ferry,  where  he  died, — a  truly 
brave  and  noble  man." 

Among  the  officers  who  were  severely  wounded  were 
Lieut.  Col.  Herbert  B.  Titus  and  Captains  John  B. 
Cooper  and  Smith  O.  Whitfield.  Lieut.  Col.  Titus  was 
himself  taking  an  active  part  in  the  conflict,  having 
picked  up  the  rifle  of  a  disabled  soldier,  when  he  was 
struck  in  the  side  by  a  bullet  and  compelled  to  leave  the 
field.  As  the  word  was  passed  along  the  line,  expres 
sions  of  sorrow  and  regret  were  heard  on  all  sides.  The 
disabling  of  two  of  their  best  captains  as  well,  was 
naturally  trying  to  soldiers  so  lately  brought  into 
action,  and  it  is  greatly  to  the  credit  of  the  Ninth  New 
Hampshire  that  the  work  assigned  them  was  performed 
so  faithfully  and  well ;  and  in  so  doing  it,  they  were  as 
essential  a  factor  in  the  victory  as  thpse  who  were  placed 
in  more  conspicuous  positions. 


AROUND  THE    CAMP-FIRE.— GENERAL  NAGLE'S  REPORT. 

It  is  pleasing  to  note  that  the  regiment  received  fitting 
recognition  in  official  circles.  Brig.  Gen.  James  Nagle, 
in  his  report  to  Brig.  Gen.  S.  D.  Sturgis,  thus  particu 
larized  its  service  : 

"  The  Ninth  New  Hampshire  volunteers  (Col.  E.  Q^. 
Fellows)  were  placed  near  the  bridge,  and  opened  a 
destructive  fire  directly  upon  the  enemy,  and  expended 
nearly  all  their  ammunition  during  a  gallant  resistance 
of  an  hour,  in  which  they  were  between  the  fires  of  two 
regiments  of  the  enemy,  and  sustained  themselves 
nobly." 

Apropos  to  this  commendation  of  the  regiment  is  a 
story  told  of  one  of  the  men  in  Company  F.  Just  as  the 


i862.]  THE  BATTLE  AT  ANTIETAM  CREEK.  123 

regiment  was  getting  into  position  at  the  rail  fence,  the 
man  fell  flat  on  the  ground.  "Get  up!"  shouted  the 
captain.  "I  can't,"  said  the  man;  and  the  captain 
finally  ordered  some  of  the  men  to  lay  him  under  the 
bank,  where  he  wouldn't  get  hit.  The  next  day  the 
man  reported  for  duty.  He  had  been  completely  pros 
trated  by  nervous  excitement. 


THE    HONORED    DEAD. 

Private  Charles  Marvin,  of  Company  G,  was  the  first 
man  to  fall  at  Antietam.  The  men  were  lying  flat  on 
their  bellies  on  the  under  brow  of  the  hill,  just  after 
they  had  moved  from  the  rail  fence.  Comrade  Joseph 
C.  Chapman  heard  the  hissing  of  the  bullet  which  struck 
Marvin  in  the  forehead,  killing  him  instantly.  While 
they  were  under  the  rail  fence,  Private  George  W.  Rus 
sell  was  shot  in  the  bowels,  and  lived  but  a  few  hours. 
When  the  regiment  crossed  the  bridge  and  charged  in 
the  open  ground  near  the  corn-field,  Private  Joseph  C. 
Batchelder,  of  Company  D,  was  shot  down. 

Corporal  Charles  M.  Noyes,  of  Company  F,  was  a 
Somersworth  boy,  and  very  popular  with  his  comrades, 
to  whom  he  was  best  known  by  the  familiar  name  of 
"Minty."  He  was  buried  at  Antietam,  but  his  body 
was  afterwards  sent  to  his  home  at  Great  Falls,  through 
the  kindness  of  Quartermaster  Moses,  who  tells  the  story 
of  his  efforts  to  fulfil  the  wishes  of  friends  as  follows  : 

"October  i,  1862,  I  received  a  letter  from  Rev. 
Samuel  A.  Collins,  of  Great  Falls  (who  had  just  heard 
of  'Minty's'  death),  asking  me,  in  behalf  of  the  boy's 
father,  Deacon  Milton  Noyes,  if  possible,  to  disinter  his 
body  and  have  it  sent  home. 


124  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [September, 

"  The  next  day  I  went  over  to  Sharpsburg  and  made 
a  bargain  for  two  boxes,  one  within  the  other,  in  which 
to  put  the  body.  For  these  I  was  to  pay  fifteen  dollars, 
but  I  threw  up  the  bargain,  because  on  the  third  day  I 
got  a  box  for  six  dollars,  and  then  engaged  a  man  to 
take  the  body  to  Hagerstown  for  five  dollars ;  so  that  I 
got  the  whole  thing  arranged  for  four  dollars  less  than  I 
would  otherwise  have  paid  for  the  boxes.  On  the  4th 
day  of  October  I  went  to  Sharpsburg  and  hired  a  Mr. 
Samuel  Shaw  to  go  with  his  wagon  to  Antietam  for  the 
body. 

"We  disinterred  the  body,  with  the  help  of  young 
Wentworth  and  John  Whitehouse,  and  found  that  the 
bullet  had  struck  him  on  the  left  side  near  the  heart,  and 
had  passed  obliquely  through  the  body  and  out  at  the 
hip. 

"I  took  the  box  (two  in  one)  to  Hagerstown,  Pa., 
which  was  about  fourteen  miles  distant,  across  the  state 
line.  We  arrived  there  at  ten  o'clock  p.  m.,  and  placed 
the  body  in  the  care  of  Mr.  Charles  Lane,  undertaker, 
who  enclosed  it  in  a  metallic  casket,  and  delivered  it  at 
the  depot  on  Monday.  All  my  expenses  were  paid  by 
Deacon  Noyes." 

THE    COMRADES1    OWN    STORIES. 

In  an  engagement  where  there  were  so  many  casual 
ties,  no  man  knew  when  his  turn  might  come,  and  many 
incidents  are  told  in  the  diaries  and  letters  of  the  men, 
of  narrow  escapes  and  queer  happenings  of  the  field  ; 
things  that  to  outsiders  might  seem  but  trivialties,  but  to 
men  whose  lives  were  hanging  by  a  thread,  everything 
was  of  importance. 


i862.]  THE  BATTLE  AT  ANT2ETAM  CREEK.  125 

Fifteen  Inches  Long. — A  member  of  Company  F  tells 
how,  as  the  men  were  going  down  the  hill  to  the  rail 
fence,  the  enemy  was  sending  showers  of  railroad  iron 
into  their  midst.  One  piece  (he  says  it  was  fifteen 
inches  long,  and  doubtless  it  was,)  whizzed  by  his  head 
and  went  rolling  end  over  end  down  the  hill. 

"  With  Pleasure,  Captain!" — A  little  fellow  in  the 
same  company  got  "  rattled"  while  loading  his  gun,  and 
having  disabled  the  piece  by  beginning  to  load  with  the 
bullet,  was  sharply  reprimanded  by  the  captain,  who 
ordered  him  to  go  back  and  find  "some  dead  man's 
gun"  to  replace  his  own.  "  With  pleasure,  Captain," 
said  the  boy,  and  the  order  of  his  going  was  anything 
but  slow. 

"Hadn't  Thought  of  It" — Wesley  Simonds,  of  Com 
pany  I,  shortly  after  leaving  the  rail  fence,  had  the  sole 
of  one  shoe  cut  completely  off  by  a  bullet,  and  then  went 
around  barefooted.  By  and  by  he  volunteered  to  go  on 
the  skirmish  line,  and  was  starting  off  with 

"  One  shoe  off,  and  one  shoe  on," 

a  la  "my  son,  John,"  when  a  comrade,  noticing  his 
sorry  plight,  said,  "  Simonds,  what  are  you  going  'round 
barefoot  for,  when  there  's  plenty  of  shoes  lying  'round 
here,  doing  nobody  any  good?"  "Sure  enough,"  said 
Simonds;  "strange  I  never  thought  of  that!"  and  a 
"  mate"  if  not  a  "  perfect  fit"  was  soon  found. 

Didn't  Ask  Why. — After  the  Ninth  had  crossed  the 
bridge  and  was  getting  into  position  on  the  heights 
beyond,  Captain  Andrew  J.  Stone  and  Private  Herman 
A.  Clement,  of  Company  F,  were  standing  side  by  side. 
The  captain,  who  was  closely  watching  the  enemy's 
movements,  saw  a  shell  coming  towards  them. 


126  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [September, 

"  Drop  !  "  yelled  the  captain,  and  Clement  did  n't  stop  to 
ask  why,  but  promptly  "  dropped."  The  shell  passed 
directly  over  them,  and  buried  itself  in  the  ground  just 
beyond.  This  was  but  one  of  many  similar  occurrences. 

Singular  Wounds. — W.  W.  and  J.  H.  Humphrey,  of 
Company  E,  were  brothers,  from  Plainfield.  One  was 
right  and  the  other  left-handed.  The  right-handed  one 
lost  his  right  thumb,  and  the  left-handed  one  had  his  left 
thumb  or  finger  shot  off.  Such  were  the  freaks  of  war. 

A  Choice  of  Weapons. — Two  men  from  Company  E 
had  a  somewhat  novel  experience.  During  the  forenoon 
of  the  ryth  they  were  sent  to  a  well  about  a  half  mile  in 
the  rear  of  the  Union  line  to  fill  the  canteens.  The  path 
to  the  well  lay  across  a  field  at  that  time  occupied  by  one 
of  the  ambulance  trains.  One  of  the  enemy's  batteries 
had  just  been  turned  on  the  defenceless  position,  with  the 
immediate  result  that  the  train  was  making  a  flight,  more 
rapid  than  orderly,  to  safer  quarters.  But  the  canteens 
must  be  filled  ;  so  our  heroes  pursue  the  even  tenor  of 
their  way,  while  shot  and  shell  fly — hissing  !  plowing  !  ! 
screaming  !  !  !  and  bursting  !  !  !  ! — all  around  them.  Sud 
denly,  with  a  terrific  scream  and  crash,  a  huge  shell 
strikes  a  tree  directly  in  front  of  them,  and — surely  their 
time  has  come  ! — a  perfect  shower  of  green  apples  falls 
on  their  devoted  heads  !  Green  apples  are  hard,  but  bullets 
are  harder ;  and  thanking  their  lucky  stars  that  no  worse 
misfortune  had  befallen  them,  they  proceeded  on  their 
way,  filled  the  canteens,  and  returned  unharmed. 

"  Jokum"  and  his  Mule. — Since  leaving  Washington 
the  regiment  had  been  attended  by  a  mascot,  as  some  of 
the  men  seemed  to  think,  in  the  shape  of  a  little  darkey 
about  five  years  old.  Attracted  by  the  music  he  had  fol 
lowed  the  regiment  out  of  the  city,  and  as  he  could  not 


i862.]  THE  BA  TTLE  A  T  ANTIE TAM  CREEK.  127 

be  persuaded  to  return  the  men  had  adopted  him.  An  old 
mule  picked  up  by  the  way  was  pressed  into  service  as 
a  charger,  and,  decked  out  in  an  improvised  uniform, 
"Jokum  "  and  his  mule  followed  the  fortunes  of  the  Ninth. 

At  South  Mountain  he  kept  close  behind  till  the  order 
came  to  "  Charge  bayonets!"  Then  Jokum  seemed  to 
realize  that  it  was  time  for  him  to  beat  a  retreat,  and  with 
the  remark  "  Guess  I'd  bettah  git  out  o'  heah  fo'  I  gits 
hurted  !"  made  his  mule  "  about  face,"  and  was  soon  out 
of  sight.  Nothing  more  was  seen  of  him  that  day,  or 
the  next,  and  the  men  began  to  fear  their  little  favorite 
had  come  to  grief. 

But  Jokum  had  not  forgotten  his  friends,  and  at  Antie- 
tam  he  turned  up  again,  still  sticking  to  his  mule,  right 
in  the  thick  of  the  fight.  Dodging  the  bullets, — now  on 
this  side,  and  now  on  that, — he  finally  made  his  way  to 
the  regiment.  "  I  b'longs  to  yer,  an'  I'se  gwine  to  stick 
to  yer  !  "  was  his  greeting. 

He  followed  the  regiment  closely  after  this,  sometimes 
on  his  mule,  often  on  foot,  and  again  in  a  baggage 
wagon.  The  boys  made  him  a  neat  uniform,  provided 
him  with  a  small  blanket  and  haversack,  and  saw  to  it 
always  that  Jokum  was  comfortably  clothed  and  fed. 

The  lad  was  a  perfect  mimic,  and  "  caught  on"  easily 
to  the  various  peculiar  phrases  of  the  men  and  the  ways 
of  camp  life.  He  would  take  up  his  position  in  a  com 
pany  street,  and  go  through  perfectly  all  the  details  of  a 
dress  parade  or  guard  mount,  not  only  giving  the  com 
mands  of  the  different  officers  and  the  varied  reports  of 
the  non-commissioned  officers,  but  so  closely  imitating 
their  tones  of  voice  and  peculiar  gestures  as  to  create  all 
manner  of  sport  for  the  men  and  make  himself  a  regi 
mental  character. 


128  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [September, 

Soon  after  the  Battle  of  Fredericksburg,  Sergeant 
Robinson  had  ordered  from  New  Hampshire  a  complete 
new  suit  of  clothes  especially  for  Jokum.  When  the 
box  arrived  the  sergeant  was  sick  in  the  hospital,  but 
some  of  the  boys  got  "  Jok"  into  their  tent  and  pro 
ceeded  to  introduce  him  into  his  new  "  Doggery." 
"  What  do  you  think  of  them,  "  Jok  ?"  said  one.  "  I 
tink  Sergeant  Robinson  must  have  pretty  rich  wife  to 
send  me  so  much  nice  tings,"  was  the  quick  reply.  As 
Sergeant  Robinson  was  a  "  lone  bachelor"  in  those  days, 
he  didn't  hear  the  last  of  his  "  rich  wife"  for  a  long  time 
to  come. 

Jokum  kept  with  the  regiment  until  April,  1863,  when 
the  Ninth  was  at  Baltimore,  on  its  way  to  the  farther 
west  and  south.  Sorry  as  they  were  to  part  with  Jokum, 
it  seemed  cruel  to  expose  him  longer  to  the  dangers  of 
the  field,  and  at  the  first  opportunity  he  was  sent  back  to 
Washington. 

Dodging  a  Fence  Stake. — It  has  already  been  told,  in 
the  story  of  the  battle,  how  the  gallant  charge  of  the 
Ninth  New  Hampshire  up  the  crest  of  the  hill  beyond 
the  bridge,  opened  up  the  way  for  the  carrying  of  the 
Confederate  battery  by  the  Ninth  New  York  ;  but  there 
is  one  little  episode,  which  escaped  the  general  historian, 
that  the  New  Hampshire  boys  had  many  a  hearty  laugh 
about  afterwards,  though  they  thought  it  rather  a  grim 
joke  at  the  time. 

The  crest  of  the  bluff  had  been  gained.  Off  to  the 
right  was  the  Confederate  battery  ;  directly  in  front,  a 
body  of  infantry  ;  on  the  left,  a  high  rail  fence,  built  in 
true  southern  style,  the  supporting  pickets — sometimes 
long  and  sometimes  short — crossed  in  zig-zag  fashion. 
Through  a  gap  in  this  fence,  just  as  the  line  was  being 


i862.]  THE  BA  TTLE  A  T  ANTIE  TAM  CREEK.  1 29 

formed  for  an  advance  charge,  came  another  body  of 
the  enemy.  The  New  Hampshire  boys  were  not  to  be 
caught  napping.  Wheeling  quickly  to  the  left,  they 
charged  on  the  surprised  Confederates,  and  drove  them 
towards  the  body  in  front.  The  battery,  meanwhile, 
was  getting  in  some  close  work,.  Four  shots  were  fired 
in  their  attempt  to  dislodge  the  Ninth,  the  first  three 
being  faulty  in  aim  and  doing  no  harm  ;  but  the  fourth 
laid  low  four  men  in  Company  K.  Again  the  line  was 
being  formed,  when  through  the  same  gap  in  the  fence 
came  the  Ninth  New  York  with  a  rush  ;  though  how 
they  got  there  has  always  been  a  mystery  to  every  one 
but  themselves. 

Just  then — whiz  !  zip  ! — came  a  shot  from  the  battery. 
Something  went  whirling  through  the  air  just  above  the 
New  Yorkers'  heads,  turning  over  and  over  and  making 
every  man  dodge  as  it  passed.  It  was  only  the  top  of 
one  of  the  long  rail  pickets,  cut  off  by  the  shot,  but  it 
was  a  deadly-looking  missile  to  the  gallant  Zouaves, 
brave  men  though  they  were. 

An  Impromptu  Ride. — "  As  we  were  crossing  the  lane 
near  the  bridge,  we  did  not  move  in  very  regular  order, 
and  just  as  I  reached  the  top  rail  of  the  fence  I  saw  a 
sow,  with  her  litter  of  pigs,  come  running  up  the  bank 
from  the  creek.  The  poor  thing  was  so  frightened  she 
didn't  know  which  way  to  turn,  and  came  rushing  pell- 
mell  through  the  ranks,  catching  one  of  the  men  between 
the  legs  and  carrying  him  off  astride  her  back,  his  rifle 
waving  in  the  air  and  he  shouting  for  help  at  the  top  of 
his  voice.  Without  doubt  both  steed  and  rider  were  glad 
when  the  impromptu  ride  came  to  an  end." 

More  Scared  Than  Hurt.—Thz  ball  which  killed 
George  D.  Fox,  of  Company  I,  passed  directly  through 


IX 


130  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [September, 

his  body  and  struck  Sergeant  Henry  E.  Hubbard  fair  in 
the  belt,  nearly  knocking  the  breath  out  of  him.  Cap 
tain  Babbitt,  somewhat  disconcerted  at  this  double  loss, 
hurriedly  asked  Hubbard  if  he  was  badly  hurt.  "  I  guess 
I'm  a  goner  this  time,  Cap,"  was  the  answer;  but  an 
examination  disclosed  the  fatal  bullet  safely  ensconced  in 
the  apparently  dying  man's  cartridge-box.  Hubbard 
was  thoroughly  disgusted  at  this  commonplace  ending  to 
his  adventure,  and  ever  afterwards  held  to  the  opinion 
that  it  was  "  a  mighty  mean  piece  of  business  to  pound  a 
man  most  to  death  and  not  draw  a  drop  of  blood  to  show 
for  it !  " 

Rather  a  Close  Call. — While  the  regiment  was  await 
ing  orders  at  the  bridge,  just  before  the  grand  charge  up 
the  hill  was  made,  Lieutenant  Green,  of  Company  I, 
was  sitting  down  with  his  back  comfortably  resting 
against  a  tree.  Pretty  soon  there  came  a  raking  fire 
from  the  battery  perched  on  the  heights  beyond,  and  the 
men  began  to  look  for  cover ;  but  Lieutenant  Green  was 
quite  well  satisfied  with  his  position  and  stuck  to  his  seat. 
All  at  once  there  came  a  perfect  shower  of  balls,  and  the 
lieutenant  ducked  with  the  rest.  None  too  soon,  either, 
for  a  huge  shot  had  imbedded  itself  in  the  tree  not  three 
feet  from  the  ground.  Slowly  picking  himself  up,  the 
now  thoroughly  frightened  man  ejaculated,  "  Mein 
Gott,  boys,  see  vere  I  haf  been  sitting  !  " 

One  on  the  Sergeant. — Lieut.  C.  W.  Wilcox  tells  this 
one  on  himself.  "At  the  first  Sunday  morning  regimen 
tal  inspection  after  the  Battle  of  Antietam,  as  first  ser 
geant  of  Company  I,  I  went  to  the  quartermaster  to 
obtain  the  overcoats  which  belonged  to  the  company, 
and  which  had  recently  been  returned  from  Washing 
ton.  When  I  got  back  the  company  was  all  formed 


CHARLES  M.  BLAISDELL. 


CHARLES  M.  BLAISDELL,  Co.  F. 


I862.J  THE  BATTLE  AT  ANTIETAM  CREEK.  131 

and  ready  to  take  their  place  on  the  line  for  inspection. 
The  second  sergeant  turned  the  company  over  to  me,  I 
to  the  captain,  and  we  immediately  started  and  took  our 
position  in  line,  Company  I  being  on  the  extreme  right 
of  the  regiment,  and  I  the  first  man  to  be  inspected. 
Throwing  my  gun  to  the  colonel,  he  looked  it  over  and 
exclaimed,  '  You,  an  orderly  sergeant,  to  come  out  with 
such  a  gun  as  that !  Look  at  it ! '  Then  he  gave  me  a 
regular  Scotch  blessing,  to  which  I  could  make  no 
reply.  On  returning  to  camp  I  found  the  man  who  had 
taken  my  gun  and  left  his  for  me  to  take,  in  a  hurry.  I 
then  took  mine  to  Captain  Babbitt,  who  went  with  me 
to  the  colonel,  where  proper  explanations  were  made 
and  I  was  relieved  from  an  unjust  imputation." 

A  Solid  Shot. — Comrade  Wilcox  relates  another  inci 
dent,  which  occurred  just  after  the  regiment  had  marched 
down  the  ravine  running  past  the  brick  house  and  halted 
near  the  main  road  leading  to  the  stone  bridge,  but  a  few 
rods  distant,  the  wooded  bluff  on  the  right  serving  as  a 
cover  from  the  shot  and  shell  of  the  enemy.  While  wait 
ing  there,  he  and  several  other  members  of  Company  I, 
which  had  the  right  of  the  regiment,  climbed  up  the 
bluff,  from  the  west  side  of  which  could  be  obtained  a 
good  view  of  the  bridge  and  the  surrounding  country  as 
well.  Just  as  they  were  nearing  the  top  a  solid  shot 
struck  a  tree  directly  above  and  in  front  of  them.  It  is 
needless  to  say  that  this  little  episode  fully  satisfied  their 
curiosity,  as  amid  flying  splinters  and  dropping  branches 
the  adventurers  made  double-quick  time  in  descending 
and  returning  to  their  company,  the  regiment  soon  after 
filing  to  the  right  into  the  main  road  and  taking  up  posi 
tion  behind  a  rail  fence  between  the  road  and  the  creek. 
In  1892  Comrade  Wilcox  and  his  wife,  together  with 


132  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [September, 

Comrades  Alvah  R.  Davis  and  William  H.  Perry  of 
Company  K,  visited  the  Antietam  battle-field.  Before 
reaching  the  ravine  Comrade  Wilcox  related  the  above 
incident,  stating  that  he  was  confident,  although  thirty 
years  had  passed  since  it  occurred,  he  could  go  directly 
to  the  spot  if  the  tree  were  still  standing.  Arriving  at  the 
locality,  the  tree  was  quickly  found,  the  trunk  still  bear 
ing  the  tell-tale  scar  where  the  shot  had  struck  it  about 
three  feet  above  the  ground,  though  it  had  not  gone  clear 
through,  as  Comrade  Wilcox  had  heretofore  supposed. 
He  afterwards  tried  to  procure  that  section  of  the  tree  as 
a  memento,  but  without  success. 


AFTER   THE    BATTLE. 

A  long  and  bloody  battle  had  been  fought.  The  Ninth 
Army  corps  had  covered  itself  with  glory,  and  General 
Burnside  had  reason  to  be  proud  of  his  dauntless  com 
mand.  All  that  brave  men  could  do  to  win  the  day, 
they  had  done.  Though  the  enemy  had  made  a  stand 
at  a  point  that  to  a  fainter-hearted  leader  might  easily 
have  proved  itself  a  veritable  Gibraltar,  he  had  been 
routed  ;  and  to  the  Ninth  Army  corps  belongs  the  honor 
of  having  taken  the  most  advanced  position. 

The  following  despatch  from  General  McClellan  car 
ries  its  own  explanation  : 

HEAD-QUARTERS. 

KEEDYSVILLE,  MD., 

September  18,  1862. — 8  a.  m. 

MAJ.  GEN.  H.  W.  HALLECK, 

General-in-Chief  United  States  Army : 

The  battle  of  yesterday  continued  for  fourteen  hours,  and  until  after 
dark.  We  held  all  we  gained,  except  a  portion  of  the  extreme  left; 
that  was  obliged  to  abandon  a  part  of  what  it  had  gained.  Our  loss 


i862.]  THE  BATTLE  AT  ANTIETAM  CREEK.  133 

very  heavy,  especially  in  general  officers.     The  battle  will  probably  be 
renewed  to-day.     Send  all  the  troops  you  can  by  the  most  expeditious 

route. 

GEO.  B.  MCCLELLAN, 

Major-  General,  Commanding. 

But  the  anticipations  of  the  commanding  general  in 
regard  to  a  renewal  of  the  conflict  were  not  realized. 
There  was  some  artillery  firing,  but  no  general  engage 
ment.  Enough  re-enforcements  had  come  up  during  the 
night  to  nearly  cover  the  losses  of  the  preceding  day, 
but  still  General  McClellan  hung  back ;  evidently  pre 
ferring,  if  any  more  fighting  were  to  be  done,  that 
General  Lee  should  take  the  initiative.  In  the  mean 
time  the  men  were  caring  for  the  wounded,  burying  the 
dead,  and  getting  what  rest  they  could  for  themselves. 
The  Ninth  corps  was  strengthened  by  the  addition  of 
General  Morell's  division  (First)  of  the  Fifth  corps, 
which  was  at  once  detailed  to  relieve  the  skirmishers, 
among  whom  were  some  of  the  Ninth  New  Hampshire. 

To  the  wily  foe,  however,  this  delay  in  attacking  wras 
an  unexpected  boon,  and  he  hastened  to  take  advantage 
of  it.  Everything  that  would  tend  to  retard  him  in  his 
flight  was  left  behind.  Let  the  wounded  and  the  dead 
go  uncared  for  and  unburied  !  None  of  the  debris  of 
battle  for  him.  Let  the  Yankees  take  care  of  that.  But 
he  took  good  care  that  none  of  the  rich  booty  from 
Harper's  Ferrv  should  fall  into  their  hands. 

No  sooner  was  the  flight  of  the  enemy  discovered,  on 
the  morning  of  the  I9th,  than  the  Army  of  the  Potomac 
was  started  in  hot  pursuit.  Burnside's  command  was 
ordered  down  the  road  to  Antietam  Iron  Works,  but 
finding,  on  reaching  the  Potomac,  that  the  enemy  had 
placed  his  batteries  in  a  commanding  position  on  the 
Virginia  shore,  the  Ninth  corps  went  into  camp  a  short 


134  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [September, 

distance  above  Antietam  creek,  and  waited  for  the  rest 
of  the  command  to  come  up.  It  was  during  this  cessa 
tion  of  hostilities  that  General  Sturgis  issued  the  follow 
ing  congratulatory  order : 

HEAD-QUARTERS,  20  DIVISION,  9TH  A.  C. 

ANTIETAM,  Sept.  20,   1862. 
GENERAL  ORDER 

No.   ii. 

The  General  Commanding  the  Division  avails  himself  of  this  lull  in 
the  roar  of  battle  to  return  his  thanks  to  the  officers  and  troops  for 
their  handsome  behavior  in  the  Battles  of  South  Mountain  and  Antie 
tam  Bridge,  and  to  say  to  them  that  he  has  been  assured  by  General 
Burnside,  that  General  McClellan  considers  the  carrying  the  Bridge  as 
having  saved  the  day. 

While,  therefore,  we  have  reason  to  be  proud  of  our  successes,  we 
should  remember  that  they  were  achieved  through  the  loss  of  many  of 
our  brave  comrades  : — among  whom  was  the  gallant  and  distinguished 
Maj.  Gen.  Jesse  L.  Reno,  who  led  this  Division  so  often  to  victory. 
He  was  a  classmate  and  bosom  friend  of  the  General  Commanding, — 
a  man  of  the  highest  integrity,  and  one  who  loved  his  country  beyond 
all  earthly  things,  and  shrank  from  no  danger  in  defending  it. 

His  last  words  were,  "  I  can  no  longer  be  with  my  men;  let  them 
know  I  will  still  be  with  them  in  spirit." 

His  spirit  was  with  them  indeed,   and  led  them  across  Antietam 
Bridge  ;  thus  saving  the  army  after  death. 
By  order  of 

BRIG'R  GEN'L  S.  D.  STURGIS. 

WM.  C.  RAWOLLE, 

Capl.  and  C/i.  of  Arty. 
Official  Copy. 

Attest.  JOHN  EDWIN  MASON, 

Acting  Ass  V  Adj.  Gen  V, 
ist  Brigade,  qth  A.  C. 

Had  not  the  division  so  thoroughly  deserved  the  praise 
of  General  Sturgis,  the  pleasant  tone  of  the  commander's 
orders  might  have  easily  been  attributed  to  the  witching 


i862.]  THE  BATTLE  AT  ANTIETAM  CREEK.  135 

strains  of  the  Ninth  regiment  band  ;  for  one  of  its  mem 
bers,  writing  under  date  of  September  19  (the  day  pre 
ceding  the  date  of  the  order),  says, — "We  played  at 
our  division  commander's  (General  Sturgis's)  quarters, 
who  at  once  became  one  of  our  very  best  friends." 

The  final  result  of  the  flight  and  pursuit  is  told  in  the 
brief  resume  of  events  given  in  the  following  despatches  : 

HEAD-QUARTERS  ARMY  OF  THE  POTOMAC. 

September  19,  1862 — 8:  30  a.  m. 

(Received  11  a.  m.) 
MAJ.  GEN.  H.  W.  HALLECK, 

GENERAL-IN-CHIEF  : 

But  little  occurred  yesterday  except  skirmishing,  being  fully  occupied 
in  replenishing  ammunition,  taking  care  of  wounded,  &c.  Last  night 
the  enemy  abandoned  his  position,  leaving  his  dead  and  wounded  on 
the  field.  We  are  again  in  pursuit.  I  do  not  yet  know  whether  he  is 
falling  back  to  an  interior  position,  or  crossing  the  river.  We  may 
safely  claim  a  complete  victory. 

GEO.  B.  MCCLELLAN, 

Major-  General. 

HEAD-QUARTERS  ARMY  OF  THE  POTOMAC. 

September  19,  1862 — 10:30  a.  m. 

(Received  n  a.  m.) 
MAJ.  GEN.  H.  W.  HALLECK, 

GENERAL-IN-CHIEF  : 

Pleasanton  is  driving  the  enemy  across  the  river.  Our  victory  was 
complete.  The  enemy  is  driven  back  into  Virginia.  Maryland  and 
Pennsylvania  are  now  safe. 

GEO.  B.  MCCLELLAN, 

Major-  General. 

Yes,  Maryland  and  Pennsylvania  were  safe.  The 
invasion  of  Maryland  had  yielded  less  than  had  been 
expected.  The  people  had  shown  loyalty  where  the 
Confederates  had  confidently  looked  for  rebellion. 
"Barbara  Frietchie "  but  gave  voice  to  the  unspoken 


I36  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE. 


[September, 


loyalty  that  animated  the  hearts  of  the  Maryla.nders  in 
their  treatment  of  the  Union  troops.  General  Lee's  own 
expectations,  too,  had  been  disappointed.  There  had 
been  no  great  victory,  unless  the  pusillanimous  surrender 
of  Harper's  Ferry  be  so  considered.  Neither  moral  nor 
material  injury  had  been  inflicted  on  the  Union  resources. 
The  evacuation  of  the  Federal  capital  had  not  been  com 
passed.  The  Confederate  government,  as  a  government 
de  jure,  had  not  been  acknowledged  by  the  governments 
of  France  and  England,  and  the  independence  of  the 
Confederate  states  had  not  been  achieved.  All  these  had 
been  the  avowed  objects  of  the  invasion. 

When  Lee  crossed  the  Potomac,  he  was  playing  for  a 
big  stake.  Though  he  had  not  been  annihilated  or  cap 
tured,  as  the  despatch  of  Governor  Curtin  had  prophe 
sied,  yet  he  had  lost  the  game.  It  is  too  ridiculous  to 
be  amusing,  but  it  is  most  certainly  sad,  to  note  the  com 
ments  of  the  Confederate  journalists  at  this  time.  The 
Richmond  Enquirer,  of  September  22,  1862,  has  the 
following  report  of  the  battle  of  Wednesday,  the 


"  We  have  the  gratification  of  being  able  to  announce 
that  the  battle  resulted  in  one  of  the  most  complete  vic 
tories  that  has  yet  immortalized  the  Confederate  arms. 
The  ball  was  opened  on  Tuesday  evening  about  six 
o'clock,  all  of  our  available  forces,  about  60,000  strong, 
commanded  by  General  Robert  E.  Lee  in  person,  and 
the  enemy,  about  150,000  strong,  commanded  by  Gen 
eral  McClellan  in  person,  being  engaged. 

"  The  position  of  our  army  was  upon  a  range  of  hills, 
forming  a  semi-circle,  with  the  concave  towards  the 
enemy  ;  the  latter  occupying  a  less  commanding  position 
opposite,  their  extreme  right  resting  upon  a  height  com 
manding  our  extreme  left.  The  arrangement  of  our  line 


1 862.]  THE  BATTLE  AT  ANTIETAM  CREEK.  137 

was  as  follows  :  General  Jackson  on  the  extreme  left. 
General  Longstreet  in  the  centre,  and  General  A.  P. 
Hill  on  the  extreme  right. 

"  The  fight  on  Tuesday  evening  was  kept  up  until 
nine  o'clock  at  night,  when  it  subsided  into  spasmodic 
skirmishes  along  the  line.  Wednesday  morning  it  was 
renewed  by  General  Jackson,  and  gradually  became 
general.  Both  armies  retained  their  respective  posi 
tions,  and  fought  desperately  throughout  the  entire  day. 
During  this  battle  Sharpsburg  was  fired  by  the  enemy's 
shells,  and  at  one  time  the  enemy  obtained  a  position 
which  enabled  them  to  pour  a  flanking  fire  upon  a  por 
tion  of  our  left  wing,  causing  it  to  waver. 

"At  this  moment,  General  Starke,  of  Mississippi,  who 
had  command  of  General  Jackson's  division,  galloped 
up  to  the  front  of  his  brigade,  and  seizing  the  standard, 
rallied  them  forward.  No  sooner  did  the  gallant  gen 
eral  thus  throw  himself  in  the  van  than  four  bullets 
pierced  his  body  and  he  fell  dead  amidst  his  men.  The 
effect,  instead  of  discouraging  them,  fired  them  with  de 
termination  and  revenge,  and  they  dashed  forward, 
drove  the  enemy  back,  and  kept  them  from  the  position 
during  the  rest  of  the  day. 

"•  It  being  evident  that  the  '  Young  Napoleon,'  finding 
he  could  not  force  his  way  through  the  invincible  ranks 
of  our  army  in  that  direction,  had  determined  upon  a 
flank  movement  towards  Harper's  Ferry,  to  thus  obtain 
a  position  in  our  rear,  General  Lee,  with  ready  fore 
sight,  anticipated  the  movement  by  drawing  the  main 
body  of  his  army  back  on  the  south  side  of  the  Potomac, 
at  Shepherdstown,  Va.,  whence  he  will,  of  course,  pro 
ject  the  necessary  combinations  for  again  defeating  his 
adversary. 


138  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [September, 

"The  enemy's  artillery  was  served  with  disastrous 
effect  upon  our  gallant  troops,  but  they  replied  from 
musket,  howitzer,  and  cannon  with  a  rapidity  and  will 
that  carried  havoc  amidst  the  opposing  ranks.  The 
battle  was  one  of  the  most  severe  that  has  been  fought 
since  the  opening  of  the  war.  Many  of  our  brave  men 
fell.  At  dark  the  firing  ceased,  and  in  the  morning, 
Thursday,  our  army  was  ready  to  recommence  the 
engagement,  the  enemy  having  been  forced  back  the 
evening  before,  and  the  advantage  of  the  battle  being  all 
on  our  side. 

"The  prisoners  stated  that  their  force  was  more  than 
100,000  strong,  and  that  McClellan  commanded  the  army 
in  person. 

"  Our  loss  is  estimated  at  5,000  in  killed,  wounded, 
and  missing.  The  prisoners  state  that  their  ranks  were 
greatly  decimated,  and  that  the  slaughter  was  terrible, 
from  which  we  may  infer  that  the  enemy's  loss  was  fully 
as  great,  if  not  greater,  than  our  own." 

The  Petersburg  Express,  of  September  23,  says, — 
"  We  think  that  General  Lee  has  very  wisely  with 
drawn  his  army  from  Maryland,  the  co-operation  of 
whose  people  in  his  plans  and  purposes  was  indispensa 
ble  for  success.  They  have  failed  to  respond  to  his 
noble  appeal  in  the  desired  way,  and  the  victories  of 
Sharpsburg  and  Boonsborough,  purchased  with  torrents 
of  blood,  have  been  rendered  unprofitable  in  a  material 
point  of  view. 

"They  have,  moreover,  deepened  the  impression  upon 
the  enemy  of  the  previous  lessons  which  we  gave  him  in 
the  art  of  fighting,  and  though  they  may  exult,  in  their 
crazy  fashion,  over  imaginary  successes  heralded  in  the 
lying  despatches  of  McClellan  and  his  trumpet-blowers, 


i862.]  THE  BATTLE  AT  ANTIETAM  CREEK.  139 

and  no  less  lying  correspondents  and  editors  of  the  Lin 
coln  journals,  yet  they  will  be  willing  enough  to  let  Lee 
and  his  army  alone  on  this  side  of  the  Potomac. 

"We  can  now  put  matters  to  rights  in  Virginia,  and 
turn  our  attention  to  Piermont  and  the  Baltimore  &  Ohio 
railroad.  The  former  will  soon  be  disposed  of,  and  we 
trust  that  a  portion  of  our  army  will  be  immediately  set 
to  work  to  destroy  the  latter  in  a  way  to  render  its 
reconstruction  impracticable.  Every  bridge,  tunnel,  and 
culvert  should  be  forthwith  demolished — every  embank 
ment  levelled,  every  cut  filled  up,  and  every  cross-tie 
and  rail  removed,  from  Harper's  Ferry  to  Wheeling  and 
Parkersburg. 

"The  road  has  been  a  source  of  nothing  but  evil  to 
the  state  since  it  was  made,  and  more  especially  since 
the  commencement  of  the  war.  Along  its  whole  fine 
the  taint  of  disloyalty  and  treason  is  to  be  seen.  It  has 
more  or  less  Yankeeized  the  entire  region  between  its 
track  and  the  Pennsylvania  border,  from  the  Ohio  to  the 
Potomac. 

"The  recrossing  of  the  Potomac  by  our  forces  does 
not  at  all  disturb  us.  Under  the  circumstances  it  was  a 
most  judicious  movement,  and  in  no  manner  or  degree 
prejudicial  to  our  interests  in  a  military  point  of  view, — 
save  and  except  the  losses  we  sustained  in  the  sanguinary 
battles  in  Maryland,  which  are  to  be  deeply  deplored. 

"But  the  enemy  suffered  in  this  respect  far  more  than 
we  did,  and  although  this  is  no  adequate  consolation  or 
compensation  to  us  in  the  premises,  yet  it  assures  us 
that  the  blows  which  we  struck  lost  nothing  of  their 
vigor  and  efficacy  by  the  brief  change  which  was  made 
in  the  seat  of  war." 

While  the  results  of  the  campaign,  so  far,  were  not 


140  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [September, 

what  the  Confederates  had  desired  and  expected,  neither 
had  they  been  to  the  Federals'  liking.  They  had  hoped 
that  the  Army  of  Northern  Virginia  might  be  utterly 
destroyed,  and  the  Rebellion  brought  to  an  end.  What 
might  have  been  accomplished  had  it  not  been  for  that 
famous  fog,  the  weariness  of  the  Union  soldiers,  and 
General  McClellan's  excessive  caution,  it  is  useless  to 
speculate.  We  can  only  believe  that  everything  was 
and  is  ordered  for  the  best. 

Notwithstanding  the  failure  of  his  plans  at  Antietam, 
it  is  quite  certain  that  McClellan  had  in  mind  a  cam 
paign  of  extermination,  for  in  his  own  published  state 
ment  he  says, — "It  must  be  borne  constantly  in  mind 
that  the  purpose  of  advancing  from  Washington  was 
simply  to  meet  the  necessities  of  the  moment  by  frus 
trating  Lee's  invasion  of  the  northern  states,  and,  when 
that  was  accomplished,  to  push  with  the  utmost  rapidity 
the  work  of  re-organization  and  supply,  so  that  a  new 
campaign  might  be  promptly  inaugurated  with  the  army 
in  condition  to  prosecute  it  to  a  successful  termination 
without  intermission." 

But  the  cruel  war  into  which  the  men  of  the  Ninth  New 
Hampshire  had  enlisted  was  by  no  means  nearing  an  end. 
What  they  had  yet  undergone  was  only  the  introduction 
to  hardships  before  which  their  wildest  phantasies  would 
fade.  Their  initiation  had  been  a  trying  one,  yet  they 
had  stood  the  test  nobly. 


CHAPTER   V. 
FROM  ANTIETAM  TO  FREDERICKSBURG. 

The  smoke  of  the  Battle  of  Antietam  had  cleared 
away,  and  the  cessation  of  hostilities  was  a  welcome  res 
pite  from  the  incessant  strain  to  which  the  Ninth  New 
Hampshire  had  been  subjected  since  the  morning  of  the 
I4th  of  September.  The  natural  reaction  set  in,  and  for 
a  few  days  the  men  devoted  themselves  to  a  general  re 
cuperation  of  mind  and  body.  At  such  times  one  is 
not  given  to  writing  much,  and  it  is  at  best  but  a  frag 
mentary  story  that  can  be  written  of  the  weeks  that  inter 
vened  between  the  battles  of  Antietam  and  Fredericks- 
burg. 

Friday,  the  ipth,  Companies  I  and  G  were  ordered 
out  as  an  advance  picket  guard,  but  the  rest  of  the  regi 
ment  was  again  occupying  the  little  grove  near  the  creek, 
where  only  two  days  before  the  roar  of  cannon  and  rattle 
of  musketry  were  all  about  them  and  the  dead  and 
wounded  lay  on  every  hand. 

Since  early  Thursday  morning  the  chaplains  and  their 
aids  had  been  upon  the  field,  superintending  the  removal 
of  the  wounded  and  identifying  the  dead  ;  searching  their 
pockets  for  letters — written  perhaps  on  the  eve  of  the 
battle — and  trinkets  that  could  be  forwarded  to  the  friends 
at  home,  to  whom  these  last  tokens  of  the  loved  and  lost 
would  be  forever  dear. 

Sometimes  in  their  quest  they  disturbed  a  weary 
sleeper,  all  unconscious  of  his  ghastly  surroundings,  and 


142  NINTH  NE  W  HAMPSHIRE.  [September, 

were  occasionally  greeted  with  more  emphasis  than  ele 
gance.  But  now  their  long,  sad  task  was  ended,  and  all 
that  was  left  were  the  long  lines  of  lowly  graves,  each 
with  its  bit  of  board  bearing  the  name,  company,  and 
regiment  of  the  patriot  soldier  sleeping  so  quietly  beneath 
the  bloodstained  earth,  the  rush  and  tumult  of  life  all 
forgotten. 

The  Confederates  in  their  hurried  retreat  had  left  their 
dead  unburied,  and  on  the  western  side  of  the  creek 
human  corpses  lay  scattered  over  hundreds  of  acres. 
Here  was  a  single  one,  as  if  he  had  crawled  away  by 
himself  that  no  one  might  witness  his  last  struggle ; 
there,  three  or  four  had  fallen  together ;  and  in  other 
places,  the  thickly  strewn  ground  attested  the  fierceness 
of  the  contest. 

There  was  indeed  much  to  remind  the  men  of  the 
terrible  scenes  through  wrhich  they  passed,  and  it  was 
with  thankful  hearts  that  they  lay  down  to  rest  that 
night.  Though  needful  of  many  comforts,  their  lives  had 
been  spared,  and  there  was  yet  more  work  for  them  to 
do. 

Many  of  the  men,  though  still  keeping  in  the  ranks, 
were  nevertheless  suffering  extremely  from  the  unaccus 
tomed  exposure.  Fever  and  ague  were  getting  in  their 
work,  and  the  record  in  Sergeant  Robinson's  diary, 
under  date  of  September  19, — "  Made  some  herb  tea  for 
Halliday  and  myself,"  bears  witness  to  their  common 
suffering  and  helpfulness  one  to  the  other.  Next  day 
Halliday  was  no  better,  and  Robinson  took  him 
down  to  Sharpsburg  and  got  him  a  place  in  a  private 
house,  where  he  could  stay  a  few  days  and  rest. 

The  little  village  of  Sharpsburg  had  suffered  severely 
from  the  flying  shot  and  shells.  Many  of  the  houses 


i862.]  FROM  ANTIETAM  TO  FREDERICKSBUKG.  143 

were  badly  shattered,  and  there  were  but  few  without 
the  tell-tale  marks.  One  woman  said  that  the  inhabitants 
were  dreadfully  frightened  during  the  fight,  and  that  the 
women  and  children  were  down  in  the  cellars  of  the 
houses  praying  that  God  would  deliver  them  from  the 
threatening  destruction. 

It  seems  that  Halliday's  experience  taught  the  ser 
geant  that  something  a  little  stronger  than  herb  tea  was 
needed  for  such  attacks,  for  in  his  next  letter  home  he 
wrote, — "  I  wish  you  would  send  me  some  cayenne  pep 
per  or  composition."  Let  us  hope  that  a  liberal  supply 
was  forthcoming  by  return  mail,  and  that  the  boys' 
stomachs  got  well  warmed  up. 

Probably  Sergeant  Burnham  smiles  now  when  he 
recalls  his  first  attack  of  ague,  and  how— ignorant  of  the 
nature  of  the  disease, — he  resignedly  remarked,  "  Boys, 
I  'm  afraid  my  soldiering  days  are  over ! "  But  he 
didn't  smile  then;  there  wasn't  time  between  the 
shakes.  The  sergeant  was  destined  to  do  many  a  good 
day's  service  yet,  and  having  been  assisted  to  a  neigh 
boring  haystack  by  some  sympathetic  comrades, — who 
were  sick  themselves- — they  all  managed  to  get  a  com 
fortable  night's  sleep,  and  the  next  morning  Burnham 
was  on  the  mending  hand. 

For  two  or  three  days  the  regiment  remained  quietly 
in  camp,  though  the  very  air  was  thick  with  rumors, — of 
victories  at  one  point,  and  reverses  at  another ;  difficul 
ties  were  to  be  speedily  adjusted,  and  again,  they  were 
to  be  contested  to  the  bitter  end.  In  the  mean  time  the 
opportunity  for  rest  and  recuperation  was  fully  improved. 
The  scanty  supply  of  clothing  was  washed  and  mended, 
letters  were  written  to  the  anxious  friends  at  home,  and 
each  one  made  himself  as  comfortable  as  circumstances 


144  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [September, 

would  allow.  Qiiite  a  number  of  blankets  were  picked 
up  on  the  Confederate  side  of  the  field,  and  these  served 
to  make  their  hard  couches  a  little  more  endurable. 
These  temporary  privations  were  real  hardships  to  men 
accustomed  to  abundant  food  and  clean  clothing,  yet  as 
they  came  to  know  more  intimately  the  pitiable  condition 
of  the  Confederate  forces,  they  learned  that  they  still 
had  much  to  be  thankful  for. 

When  Sunday  came  again,  Chaplain  Gushee  held  a 
short  service  in  the  forenoon,  and  there  was  a  well 
attended  prayerTmeeting  in  the  evening.  Two  days 
later  came  an  order  moving  the  camp  about  a  mile  to  the 
left  of  Sharpsburg.  Quite  a  good  many  of  the  soldiers 
were  really  unfit  even  for  this  short  march,  but  with  the 
ready  help  of  their  more  fortunate  comrades  the  change 
was  made  without  much  discomfort. 

Just  at  night  there  was  great  rejoicing  in  the  camp — 
a  mail  had  arrived,  the  first  letters  the  men  had  received 
since  leaving  Leesborough.  The  effect  was  like  that  of 
an  unexpected  re-enforcement  in  a  doubtful  battle.  What 
magic  there  was  in  those  white-winged  missives,  so  full 
of  love  and  pity  for  those  who  were  risking  their  very 
lives  for  the  sake  of  the  dear  ones  at  home  !  Aches 
and  pains  vanished  instanter,  hunger  and  cold  were  for 
gotten  as  the  men  crowded  around  the  camp-fires,  eager 
for  the  home  news. 

The  present  camp  was  quite  a  pleasant  one,  being- 
pitched  on  a  beautiful  green  sward,  with  plenty  of 
clean,  fresh  water  close  by.  A  liberal  supply  of  straw 
for  the  tents  seemed  quite  a  luxury  after  the  bare 
ground,  and  the  men  were  well  content  with  their  quar 
ters.  Writing  home  from  here,  Wilcox  says, — "You 
might  see  me  at  this  time  sitting  on  my  blanket,  with 


1862.]  FROM  ANTIETAM  TO  FREDERICKSBURG.  145 

my  back  leaning  against  a  rail  fence,  on  a  thinly 
wooded  knoll,  and  in  full  view  of  the  Potomac,  which 
is  not  more  than  twenty-five  rods  distant.  I  have  an 
elegant  desk  to  write  upon,  composed  of  the  bottom  of 
my  tin  plate.  In  regard  to  my  wants,  I  don't  want  any 
thing  more  than  what  I  have  got,  and  if  I  did  I  could 
not  get  it,  as  there  is  a  law  against  sending  anything  to 
soldiers.  Still,  if  you  could  send  me  a  colored  silk  hand 
kerchief  by  folding  in  a  paper,  it  would  be  very  accept 
able."  Surely,  life  in  camp  at  this  time,  if  not  strictly  a 
bed  of  roses,  nevertheless  had  a  sunny  side,  when  a  silk 
handkerchief,  like  the  mantle  of  charity,  could  cover  a 
multitude  of  needs. 

That  there  was  a  sunny  side,  and  that  the  men  made 
the  most  of  it,  Robinson's  diary  witnesses.  "  In  the  eve 
ning,  as  many  of  us  as  could  get  in  crawled  into  our 
tent,  which  was  a  double  one,  and  some  of  us  lying  on 
our  bellies,  some  of  us  squatting,  and  some  sitting,  we 
discussed  the  following  resolution :  * Resolved,  That  two 
years'  experience  in  camp,  with  two  years'  experience  in 
college,  is  more  beneficial  to  one  preparing  for  a  profes 
sional  life  than  four  years  in  college."1 

Barber,  Davis,  Taft,  and  Burnham  were  on  the  affirm 
ative,  and  George,  Shedd,  Robinson,  and  Tracy  on  the 
negative ;  while  Corporal  Bragg,  seated  on  a  knapsack, 
presided  over  the  deliberations  with  as  much  dignity  as 
the  limited  space  would  allow. 

To  men  New  Hampshire  born  and  bred,  army  life 
brought  the  curtailment  of  no  luxury  dearer  to  the  heart 
than  the  "  three-times-a-day  "  piece  of  pie  on  which  they 
had  been  "  raised."  The  Massachusetts  man  may  boast 
of  his  beans  and  his  culture,  it  was  a  pie  that  enthused 
our  own  New  Hampshire  poet  when  he  sang, 


146  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [September, 

"What  moistens  the  lip,  and  what  brightens  the  eye? 
What  calls  back  the  past  like  the  rich  pumpkin  pie? " 

a  sentiment  echoed  by  every  true  child  of  the  Granite 
state.  So  we  cannot  but  sympathize  with  the  poor  fel 
low  who  wrote  home  to  his  mother,  in  answer  to  her 
anxious  queries  as  to  his  food,  that  he  had  tasted  only 
one  piece  of  pie  since  leaving  Concord,  and  even  that 
"  was  a  mean  thing." 

The  plain  living  was  conducive  to  high  thinking, 
though,  for  our  friend  philosophically  concluded  his 
letter  with  the  sentiment  that  the  soldiers  needed  to  live 
plain,  but  that  it  came  pretty  hard  on  those  who  were 
sick. 

On  the  morning  of  the  26th  the  camp  was  again 
moved,  this  time  about  two  miles,  which  brought  them 
to  South  Antietam,  where  General  Nagle  had  estab 
lished  brigade  head-quarters.  This  camp  was  in  a 
grove  of  locust  trees,  and  being  along  a  high  bluff,  com 
manded  a  fine  view  down  the  valley.  Their  stay  here, 
of  some  days,  afforded  an  opportunity  for  the  camp  drill 
they  so  much  needed.  This  consisted  of  guard  mount 
in  the  morning  and  dress  parade  in  the  afternoon,  mak 
ing  a  pleasant  break  in  the  monotony  of  camp  life, 
and  under  the  cheering  influence  of  better  food  and 
quarters,  many  of  the  sick  ones  were  able  to  return  to 
the  ranks. 

About  the  first  of  October  the  regimental  band  was 
promoted  to  the  dignity  of  a  brigade  band,  and  received 
their  orders  from  the-  brigade  commander.  The  formal 
organization  was  as  follows :  Bandmaster,  H.  P. 
Hamblett;  members  of  the  first  class,  W.  H.  Graves, 
J.  B.  Bailey,  J.  A.  Hamblett,  S.  H.  Howe;  second 
class,  N.  W.  Marshall,  A.  B.  Chase,  Ben  Moreland, 


1862.]  FROM  ANTIETAM  TO  FREDERICKSBURG.  147 

Lewis  Simonds ;  third  class,  E.  St.  Francis,  G.  H. 
Lovejoy,  A.  R.  Gleason,  William  Manning,  J.  R. 
Wyman,  W.  A.  Peabody,  F.  V.  Marshall,  E.  M. 
Marble.  The  other  five  members  remained  detailed, 
as  all  had  formerly  been. 

After  the  severe  engagement  at  Antietam  there  was, 
throughout  the  army,  necessarily  some  relaxation  of  the 
stern  discipline  usually  observed,  and  in  the  mean  time, 
while  the  officers  were  trying  to  bring  order  out  of  the 
chaos  that  reigned  everywhere,  there  was  a  good  deal  of 
straggling  among  the  men.  This,  of  course,  added  to 
the  confusion,  for  the  men  camped  where  they  liked, 
without  regard  to  company,  regiment,  or  brigade,  so 
long  as  they  were  comfortable. 

Then,  too,  their  somewhat  scanty  rations  made  the 
surrounding  country  a  tempting  field  for  foraging. 
These  breaches  of  discipline  could  not  long  go  un 
checked,  and  General  McClellan  soon  issued  an  order 
which  brought  the  men  back  into  line  and  restored  the 
old-time  regime. 

HEAD-QUARTERS,  ARMY  OF  THE  POTOMAC, 

CAMP  NEAR  SHARPSBURG,  MD., 

October  ist,  1862. 
GENERAL  ORDERS, 

No.   158. 

Notwithstanding  the  frequent  orders  that  have  been  issued  from  these 
Head-Quarters  in  regard  to  stragglers  and  pillagers,  the  Commanding 
General  regrets  to  be  obliged  again  to  call  the  attention  of  Corps  and 
other  subordinate  Commanders  to  this  subject,  and  to  impress  upon 
them  the  absolute  necessity  of  holding  the  different  commanders 
responsible  for  this  direct  and  frequent  violation  of  orders.  We  are 
now  occupying  a  country  inhabited  by  a  loyal  population,  who  look  to 
us  for  the  preservation  of  order  and  discipline,  instead  of  suffering  our 
men  to  go  about  in  small  parties  depredating  upon  their  property. 

Armed  patrols  will  be  sent  out  daily  from  all  the   different   Corps  in 


1 48  NINTH  NE  W  HA  M PS  HI  RE. 


[September, 


this  Army,  to  arrest  all  officers  and  soldiers  who  are  absent  from  the 
limits  of  their  Camps,  without  written  permission  from  Corps,  Division, 
or  Brigade  Commanders. 

All  persons  so  arrested  will  be  sent  the  same  day  to  the  Provost 
Marshal  General  at  these  Head-Quarters,  who  will,  until  further  orders, 
send  them  under  guard  to  Harper's  Ferry,  there  to  be  kept  at  work  on 
the  defences  at  that  place. 

In  order  that  the  requirements  of  this  order  may  be  perfectly  under 
stood  by  all  concerned,  Corps  Commanders  will,  within  twenty  hours 
after  the  receipt  of  this  order,  furnish  evidence  to  the  Commanding 
General,  through  the  Assistant  Adjutant  General,  at  these  Head-Quar 
ters,  that  it  has  been  published  to  every  company  under  their  Com 
mand. 

The  Commanding  General  is  resolved  to  put  a  stop  to  this  pernicious 
and  criminal  practice,  and  he  will  hold  Corps  Commanders  responsible 
for  the  faithful  execution  of  this  order. 

By  Command  of  Major  Genl.  McClellan, 

[Signed]  S.  WILLIAMS, 

Official.  Asst.  Adj^t  Genl. 

WILLIAM  C.  RAWOLLE, 
Capt.  &  A.  A.  A.  G. 

October  3  was  a  red-letter  day  in  camp,  for  the  army 
was  reviewed  by  President  Lincoln  and  General  Mc 
Clellan.  Though  the  Ninth  New  Hampshire  was  only 
a  small  factor  in  the  grand  review,  still  it  is  interesting  to 
note  the  inspiring  effect  the  president's  visit  had  upon  the 
men.  The  review  was  announced  at  roll-call,  and 
immediately  all  set  to  work  to  make  themselves  look  as 
well  as  possible.  About  eight  o'clock  the  regiment  was 
marched  to  the  field  designated  for  the  review  of  the 
division,  and  formed  in  line.  The  division  consisted  of 
sixteen  regiments  of  infantry,  one  of  cavalry,  and  two 
six-gun  batteries,  and  made  a  fine  appearance. 

The  regiments  were  drawn  out  in  one  continuous  line, 
with  intervals  of  a  few  rods  between  the  battalions,  and 


1862.]          FROM  ANTIETAM  TO  FREDERICKSBURG.  149 

with  their  polished  muskets  gleaming  in  the  bright  sun 
light,  and  their  colors — some  of  them  bullet-riddled  and 
blood-stained — floating  softly  in  the  gentle  breeze,  await 
ed  the  approach  of  the  reviewing  party. 

As  the  president  drew  near,  the  artillery  thundered 
forth  a  salute,  the  bands  played  their  loudest  and  sweet 
est  strains,  and  from  thousands  of  throats  rose  cheer 
on  cheer  for  the  great  and  true-hearted  man.  "Pre 
sent  arms!"  came  the  command  from  the  officers,  and 
up  shot  the  bright  bayonets  with  a  simultaneous  flash. 
Again  the  command,  "Shoulder  arms!"  and  like  an 
electric  shock  down  came  the  burnished  weapons.  Then 
came  the  passing  in  review. 

President  Lincoln,  mounted  on  a  dark  chestnut  horse 
with  plain  trappings,  came  first,  and  just  behind  him  was 
General  Burnside.  Then  came  a  cavalcade  of  about 
fifty  civil  and  military  officers,  and  these  were  followed 
by  the  general's  body-guard.  The  president  carried  his 
hat  in  his  hand,  and  as  the  party  dashed  along,  first  in 
front  and  then  in  rear  of  the  several  brigades,  they  pre 
sented  a  brilliant  spectacle,  while  the  bands  played  "  Hail 
to  the  Chief!"  with  all  their  might. 

At  the  afternoon  dress  parade  the  following  congratu 
latory  order  was  read  to  the  assembled  troops  : 

HEAD-QUARTERS  ARMY  OF  THE  POTOMAC, 

CAMP  NEAR  SHARPSBURG,  MD., 

October  3,  1862. 
GENERAL   ORDERS, 

No.   160. 

The  Commanding  General  extends  his  congratulations  to  the  Army 
under  his  command  for  the  victories  achieved  by  their  bravery  at  the 
passes  of  the  South  Mountain  and  upon  the  Antietam  creek. 

The  brilliant  conduct  of  Reno's  and  Hooker's  corps,  under  Burnside, 
at  Turner's  Gap,  and  of  Franklin's  corps  at  Crampton's  Pass,  in  which, 


15°  NINTH  NE  W  HAMPSHIRE.  [September, 

in  the  face  of  an  enemy  strong  in  position  and  resisting  with  obstinacy, 
they  carried  the  mountain  and  prepared  the  way  for  the  advance  of  the 
Army,  won  for  them  the  admiration  of  their  brethren  in  arms. 

In  the  memorable  battle  of  the  Antietam,  we  defeated  a  numerous 
and  powerful  army  of  the  enemy,  in  an  action  desperately  fought  and 
remarkable  for  its  duration  and  for  the  destruction  of  life  which  at 
tended  it.  The  obstinate  bravery  of  the  troops  of  Hooker,  Sumner, 
and  Mansfield,  the  dashing  gallantry  of  those  of  Franklin,  on  the 
right ;  the  sturdy  valor  of  those  of  Burnside  on  the  left,  and  the  vig 
orous  support  of  Porter  and  Pleasonton,  present  a  brilliant  spectacle  to 
our  countrymen  which  will  swell  their  hearts  with  pride  and  exultation. 
Fourteen  guns,  thirty-nine  colors,  fifteen  thousand  five  hundred  stand 
of  arms,  and  nearly  six  thousand  prisoners  taken  from  the  enemy,  are 
evidences  of  the  completeness  of  our  triumph.  A  grateful  country  will 
thank  this  noble  Army  for  achievements  which  have  rescued  the  loyal 
States  of  the  East  from  the  ravages  of  the  invader  and  have  driven  him 
from  their  borders. 

While  rejoicing  at  the  victories  which,  under  God's  blessing,  have 
crowned  our  exertions,  let  us  cherish  the  memory  of  our  brave  com 
panions  who  have  laid  down  their  lives  upon  the  battle-field.  Martyrs 
in  their  country's  cause,  their  names  will  ever  be  enshrined  in  the 
hearts  of  the  people. 

By  Command  of  Major  General  McClellan. 

S.  WILLIAMS, 
Assistant  Adjutant-General. 

The  president's  visit  had  animated  the  whole  army. 
You  saw  nothing,  heard  nothing  but  war.  From  the 
high  bluff  where  the  regimental  camp  was  pitched,  as 
far  as  the  eye  could  reach  the  fields  were  dotted  over 
with  white  tents,  and  fairly  alive  with  men,  either  busy 
about  their  daily  tasks  or  marching  and  countermarch 
ing  in  regular  columns.  Near  the  several  camps  were 
the  baggage  and  supply  trains,  the  wagons  arranged  in 
line  with  military  precision,  and  surrounded  by  a  circle 
of  noisy,  hungry  mules.  At  intervals  could  be  seen  the 
parks  of  artillery,  and  in  the  neighboring  wood  were  the 


i862.]  FROM  ANTIETAM  TO  FREDERICKSBURG.  151 

numerous  camps  of  the  cavalry.  Under  the  soft,  white 
light  of  the  moon  the  scene  took  on  a  touch  of  romance, 
which  was  not  wholly  lost  when  the  camp-fires  burned 
brightly  and  each  tent  displayed  its  bit  of  candle. 

Sunday,  October  5,  the  brigade  to  which  the  Ninth 
was  attached  attended  divine  service  near  General 
McClellan's  head-quarters  in  the  afternoon,  finding  but 
little  satisfaction,  however,  in  sitting  for  an  hour  in  the 
hot  sun,  which  poured  down  on  their  heads  as  if  it  were 
midsummer.  That  evening  the  "  professings,"  as  the 
Christian  members  of  the  regiment  were  termed,  met, 
and  made  arrangements  for  forming  themselves  into  a 
religious  society  to  keep  up  the  prayer-meetings  and 
general  interest.  A  constitution  was  adopted,  and  the 
society  began  its  work  with  O.  D.  Robinson  as  president, 
Chamberlain  of  Company  D  as  secretary,  G.  O.  Bruce, 
N.  W.  Pulsifer,  Abbott,  and  E.  Ayer  as  corresponding 
secretaries,  and  one  director  from  each  company. 

Thus  did  the  men  strive  to  enliven  the  tedium  which 
the  narrow  limits  of  the  camp  imposed,  and  from  Lieu 
tenant  Chandler's  home  letters  we  get  a  glimpse  of  life 
as  it  went  on  in  official  circles : 

"  You  will  see  that  we  have  been  not  without  a  taste  of 
soldier  life,  and  in  fact  we  were  pretty  well  used  up. 
After  marching  for  ten  days  and  fighting  two  hard  bat 
tles  the  number  of  wounded,  footsore,  shirks,  and  drones, 
would  amount  to  a  good  many.  We  could  not  muster 
500  fighting  men  on  the  morning  after  Antietam,  though 
we  have  now  more  than  700. 

"  For  my  own  part  I  frankly  say  that  I  saw  as  much 
fighting  and  came  as  close  to  danger  as  I  care  to  again, 
unless  I  may  serve  a  useful  purpose.  I  shall,  if  I  live 
to  return,  have  to  point  you  on  my  sword  scabbard  a 


152  NINTH  NE  W  HA MPSHIRE.  [September, 

fearful  blow  from  grape  shot,  and  the  doleful  whiz  of 
Minie  balls  is  still  fresh  in  my  ears. 

"  One's  feelings,  if  I  can  judge  from  the  brief  experi 
ence  of  only  two  actions,  are  somewhat  indescrib 
able,  but  the  interest  excited  soon  outweighs  personal 
considerations,  and  I  might  almost  say,  blots  out  all 
feelings  of  humanity.  One  marches  over  a  wounded 
friend  with  no  notice  whatever." 

And  again  he  writes, — 

"  For  two  weeks  I  slept  with  no  shelter  whatever,  and 
no  clothing  save  overcoat  and  blanket.  If  I  can  exer 
cise  enough  while  in  camp  to  digest  the  food  which  my 
appetite  craves,  I  shall  gain  flesh  immensely.  The  out 
door  life  improves  me  marvellously.  Our  food  is  good 
and  abundant  when  not  on  the  march,  and  fresh  meat  is 
daily  to  be  had  from  the  herds  which  follow  in  our  rear. 
Fine  clothes  are  at  a  discount.  My  best  coat  is  with  my 
trunk  stored  in  Washington,  and  I  wish  many  of  my 
other  knick-knacks  were  there  too.  My  regimental 
business  is  laborious  and  somewhat  perplexing,  but  I 
endeavor  to  do  it  properly  and  seasonably,  and  I  have 
seen  no  time  when  I  would  go  back  to  my  business  at 
home  under  similar  circumstances  as  when  I  left. 

"  Since  our  last  battle  we  have  been  leading  a  rather 
quiet  life  as  far  as  outward  demonstrations  go,  and  have 
done  more  to  perfect  ourselves  in  discipline  and  drill  than 
in  six  weeks  previous.  We  can  now  do  some  things  on 
the  line  '  right  smart,'  as  the  natives  say  here.  Presi 
dent  Lincoln  has  been  here  for  two  days.  Night  before 
last  he  was  at  Burnside's  quarters,  distant  about  twenty 
rods,  and  last  night  at  McClellan's.  At  nine  o'clock 
this  morning  we  had  a  review  of  our  corps  d'armes, 
before  the  president,  or  rather  by  the  president,  Gen- 


QUARTERMASTER  CARLETON  B.  HUTCHINS. 


i862.]          FROM  ANTIETAM  TO  FREDERICKSBURG.  153 

erals  McClellan  and  Burnside,  and  about  twenty  briga 
diers  and  their  staffs.  About  ten  thousand  troops  were 
on  line,  besides  artillery  and  cavalry.  Father  Abraham 
passed  close  by  us,  and  looks  careworn  and  thin  as  it 
appears  to  me.  General  McC.  looks  fat  and  hearty." 

The  arrival  of  Major  George  W.  Everett,  who  had 
been  detained  at  his  home  by  sickness  since  receiving 
his  commission,  was  the  occasion  of  a  gala  day: 

"We  had  a  pleasant  time  yesterday.  See  if  we  didn't : 
Major  Everett  and  I  went  out  in  the  morning  for  a  ride 
on  the  battle-field  of  Antietam  and  a  view  of  the  bridge, 
of  which,  by  the  way,  there  is  a  faint  picture  in  Frank 
Leslie's  last  pictorial,  and  on  our  return,  about  noon, 
found  in  our  tent  Colonel  Harriman,  Assistant  Surgeon 
Hutchins,  and  Lieutenant  Joseph  R.  Clark,  all  of  whom 
had  come  up  from  Sandy  Hook  to  report  to  Burnside. 

"  We  sent  for  Colonel  Griffin  of  the  Sixth  (which  is  in 
our  brigade),  and  for  our  dinner  party  had  the  follow 
ing  :  Colonels  Fellows,  Griffin,  Harriman  ;  Major  Ever 
ett ;  Lieutenants  C.  B.  Hutchins,  Moses,  Hutchins,  and 
Chandler,  and  had  a  happy  time  in  talking  over  New 
Hampshire  matters.  Colonel  Harriman  looked  finely, 
and  was  just  as  gay  and  loquacious  as  ever. 

"  To-day  Everett  and  I  rode  down  within  about  three 
miles  of  Harper's  Ferry,  on  this  side  of  the  Potomac,  and 
turned  in  by  a  narrow,  untravelled  road  and  visited  the 
house  which  was  John  Brown's  head-quarters  for  about 
four  months  preceding  his  raid.  Here  he  lived,  with 
several  of  his  men,  and  was  receiving  arms  and  sup 
plies  from  Hagerstown  and  other  points  north. 

"The  very  old  carriage  in  which  he  rode  still  stands  in 
the  barn.  The  place  is  very  retired,  nestled  among  the 


154  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [September, 

hills,  with  dense  woods  in  front,  through  which  some  of 
his  men  escaped  into  Pennsylvania.  The  place  is  now 
quite  noted,  and  I  may  send  you  a  cut  of  it  sometime,  as 
there  are  some  I  have  seen.  I  want  to  go  to  the  ferry  if 
I  can  get  time,  if  we  do  not  move  forward  from  here  too 
soon.  Please  have  mother  lay  in  a  stock  of  cider  this 
fall,  and  I  hope  I  may  get  home  to  drink  some  of  it 
before  it  gets  too  hard." 

Alas  for  the  gallant  lieutenant's  hopes  !  That  stock  of 
cider  had  turned  to  first-class  vinegar  long  before  the 
remnant  of  the  Ninth  New  Hampshire  yielded  up  its 
tattered  colors  to  the  governor  of  the  Granite  state. 

Just  before  the  breaking  up  of  the  camp  at  South  An- 
tietam,  General  McClellan  ordered  the  publishing  of  two 
circulars, — one  designed  to  check  the  indiscriminate 
granting  of  furloughs,  that  the  army  might  be  kept  in  con 
dition  to  march  on  short  notice,  the  other  conveying  the 
cheering  intelligence  of  the  victory  of  the  troops  in  the 
West. 

On  the  22d  of  September,  President  Lincoln  had  issued 
one  of  the  most  important  documents  ever  published  by 
a  president  of  the  United  States.  It  consisted  of  a  notice 
to  the  Confederates  to  return  to  their  allegiance,  emanci 
pation  of  all  slaves  being  proclaimed  as  a  result  which 
would  follow  their  failure  to  so  return.  This  act  was 
simply  a  war  measure,  based  upon  the  president's 
authority  as  commander-in-chief.  The  real  "  Emanci 
pation  Proclamation"  was  the  supplementary  document 
issued  on  the  ist  of  January,  1863. 

This  preparatory  document,  however,  was  enough  to 
rouse  the  excitement  in  the  South  to  a  fever  heat,  and 
among  the  Union  troops  was  the  cause  of  much  discus- 


1 862.]  FROM  ANT1ETAM  TO  FREDERICKSBURG.  155 

sion  as  to  the  wisdom  of  the  president's  course.  To 
such  an  extent  was  this  carried  that  the  following  gen 
eral  order  was  issued  to  the  Army  of  the  Potomac,  by 
order  of  General  McClellan  : 

HEAD-QUARTERS  ARMY  OF  THE  POTOMAC, 

CAMP  NEAR  SHARPSBURG,  MD., 

October  7,  1862. 
GENERAL  ORDERS 

No.  163. 

The  attention  of  officers  and  soldiers  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  is 
called  to  General  Orders,  No.  139,  War  Department,  Sept.  24,  1862, 
publishing  to  the  Army  the  President's  proclamation  of  Sept.  22d. 

A  proclamation  of  such  grave  moment  to  the  nation,  officially  com 
municated  to  the  Army,  affords  to  the  general  commanding  an  oppor 
tunity  of  defining  specifically  to  the  officers  and  soldiers  under  his  com 
mand  the  relation  borne  by  all  persons  in  the  military  service  of  the 
United  States  towards  the  civil  authorities  of  the  Government.  The 
Constitution  confides  to  the  civil  authorities,  legislative,  judicial,  and 
executive,  the  power  and  duty  of  making,  expounding,  and  executing 
the  Federal  laws.  Armed  forces  are  raised  and  supported  simply  to 
sustain  the  civil  authorities,  and  are  to  be  held  in  strict  subordination 
thereto  in  all  respects.  This  fundamental  rule  of  our  political  system 
is  essential  to  the  security  of  our  republican  institutions,  and  should  be 
thoroughly  understood  and  observed  by  every  soldier.  The  principles 
upon  which,  and  the  object  for  which,  armies  shall  be  employed  in 
suppressing  rebellion,  must  be  determined  and  declared  by  the  civil 
authorities,  and  the  chief  executive,  who  is  charged  with  the  adminis 
tration  of  national  affairs,  is  the  proper  and  only  source  through  which 
the  views  and  orders  of  the  government  can  be  made  known  to  the 
armies  of  the  nation. 

Discussions  by  officers  and  soldiers  concerning  public  measures 
determined  upon  and  declared  by  the  Government,  when  carried  at  all 
beyond  the  ordinary  temperate  and  respectful  expression  of  opinion, 
tend  greatly  to  impair  and  destroy  the  discipline  and  efficiency  of 
troops,  by  substituting  the  spirit  of  political  faction  for  that  firm, 
steady,  and  earnest  support  of  the  Government  which  is  the  highest 
duty  of  the  American  soldier.  The  remedy  for  political  errors,  if  any 


r56  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [September, 

are  committed,  is  to  be  found  only  in  the  action  of  the  people  at  the 
polls.  In  thus  calling  the  attention  of  this  Army  to  the  true  relations 
between  the  soldier  and  the  Government,  the  General  Commanding 
merely  adverts  to  an  evil  against  which  it  has  been  thought  advisable 
during  our  whole  history  to  guard  the  armies  of  the  Republic.  And 
in  so  doing  he  will  not  be  considered  by  any  right-minded  person  as 
casting  any  reflection  upon  that  loyalty  and  good  conduct  which  has 
been  so  fully  illustrated  upon  so  many  battle-fields. 

In  carrying  out  all  measures  of  public  policy  this  Army  will  of  course 
be  guided  by  the  rules  of  mercy  and  Christianity  that  have  ever  con 
trolled  its  conduct  towards  the  defenceless. 

By  Command  of  Maj.  Genl.  McClellan, 

[Signed]  JAS.  A.  HARDIE, 

Lf.  Col.  &  A.  D.  C. 

A.  A.  A.  Genl. 
Official. 

[Signed]  WM.  C.  RAWOLLE, 

Capt.  &  A.  A.  A.  G. 
Official. 

JNO.  Enw.  MASON, 
A.  A.  A.  Genl. 

It  is  now  time  to  review  the  general  movement  of  both 
armies  up  to  the  morning  of  October  7,  when  the  camp 
was  once  more  in  motion.  The  Battle  of  Antietam  was 
a  disappointment  to  each  contestant.  On  the  Confederate 
side  there  had  been  desperate  fighting  and  heavy  losses. 
In  point  of  fact,  they  were  in  no  condition  to  repel  a 
second  assault,  much  less  to  make  an  attack.  Long- 
street  considered  the  situation  so  critical,  that  from  his 
head-quarters  at  Sharpsburg  he  sent  a  note  to  Lee,  urg 
ing  him  to  retreat  across  the  river  at  early  candle-light, 
and  be  sure  and  not  light  the  candle  either,  for  he  felt 
convinced  that  a  crushing  defeat  could  be  the  only  out 
come  of  a  renewal  of  the  engagement. 

Thus,  General  Lee,  by  his  hurried  retreat  across  the 
river,  practically  acknowledged  his  own  defeat  and  his 


1862.  ]  FR OM  A NTIE  TA M  TO  FREDERICKSB  URG,  157 

inability  to  withstand  another  attack.  Even  the  South 
ern  historians  do  not  attempt  to  conceal  the  construction 
the  people  of  the  South  put  upon  Lee's  failure  to  dis 
lodge  McClellan.  On  his  return  to  Virginian  soil  one 
comments  in  this  wise  : 

44  Let  it  be  freely  confessed  that  the  object  of  General 
Lee,  in  crossing  the  Potomac,  was  to  hold  and  occupy 
Maryland ;  that  his  proclamation  issued  at  Frederick, 
offering  protection  to  the  Marylanders,  is  incontroverti 
ble  evidence  of  the  fact;  that  he  was  forced  to  return  to 
Virginia,  not  by  stress  of  any  single  battle,  but  by  the 
force  of  many  circumstances,  some  of  which  history 
should  blush  to  record ; — that,  in  these  results,  the 
Maryland  campaign  was  a  failure." 

Then,  too,  the  people  of  Maryland  had  not  appeared 
particularly  anxious  to  place  themselves  under  General 
Lee's  protecting  banner,  for  only  a  hundred  recruits 
were  gathered  in  where  thousands  were  needed.  The 
same  historian,  regarding  this  fact,  says, — 

"It  was  not  expected  that  the  few  recruits  who  timidly 
advanced  to  our  lines  would  have  been  so  easily  dis 
mayed  by  the  rags  of  our  soldiers  and  by  the  prospects 
of  a  service  that  promised  equal  measures  of  hardship 
and  glory.  " 

The  campaign  which  had  been  the  occasion  for  much 
vain-glorious  boasting  had  flatted  out  into  an  ignominious 
retreat,  and  the  Southern  Confederacy  had  not  strength 
ened  its  cause,  to  say  the  least,  by  its  campaign  in  loyal 
Maryland. 

Still,  it  must  be  acknowledged  that  General  Lee  was 
a  brilliant  strategist,  and  if  he  could  not  construe  defeat 


158  NINTH  NE  W  HAMPSHIRE.  [September, 

into  victory,  why  then  he  purposed  to  make  the  best  pos 
sible  use  of  that  defeat.  That  was  why  he  hastened  to 
place  himself  beyond  the  immediate  reach  of  General 
McClellan.  Of  what  use  to  him  were  the  dead  and 
wounded,  and  the  few  stray  stores  at  Sharpsburg? 
What  he  needed  was  men  that  could  fight,  and  could 
he  but  keep  McClellan  at  bay  for  a  few  days,  he  could 
concentrate  his  scattered  forces,  and  replenish  his  wasted 
stores  from  the  rich  bounty  of  the  dwellers  in  the  Shen- 
andoah  valley,  who  lavished  their  attentions  as  freely 
upon  the  Confederates  as  they  did  their  hatred  upon 
the  Union  troops. 

There  was  still  another  advantage  to  be  gained  by 
delay.  Even  with  his  re-enforcements  General  Lee 
was  by  no  means  sanguine  of  obtaining  a  decisive  vic 
tory,  should  he  attack  the  Union  forces ;  on  the  other 
hand,  winter  was  coming  on,  when  active  hostilities 
must  cease,  and  with  the  advent  of  spring  might  come 
the  coveted  recognition  of  the  Southern  Confederacy 
by  foreign  powers,  which  would  practically  decide  the 
disputed  question  of  supremacy.  So  with  nothing  to 
lose,  and  everything  to  gain,  by  a  delay  in  hostilities, 
General  Lee,  with  Winchester  as  a  centre  of  opera 
tions,  ranged  his  forces  from  Martinsburg  to  the  Shen- 
andoah  river,  thus  retaining  the  possession  of  the 
beautiful  and  fertile  valley  as  a  base  of  supplies,  and 
then  calmly  awaited  the  movements  of  the  Union 
commander. 

And  General  McClellan,  following  the  blind  leadings 
of  fate,  did  just  what  his  wily  opponent  wished  him  to 
do — he  waited.  His  failure  to  push  the  advantage  he 
unquestionably  possessed  on  the  morning  of  the  i8th  of 
September,  could  not  be  excused  on  any  such  grounds 


1862.]          FROM  ANTIETAM  TO  FREDERICKSBURG.  159 

as  had  been  urged  at  Richmond,  and  the  North  began 
to  experience  a  sense  of  uneasiness  and  disappointment 
at  the  lack  of  "push"  displayed  by  the  leader  of  the 
Army  of  the  Potomac.  The  expected  re-enforcements 
arrived,  and  General  Burnside  visited  the  commanding 
general's  head-quarters  and  urged  an  immediate  attack ; 
but  General  McClellan,  backed  up  by  General  Sumner, 
who  stubbornly  opposed  a  renewal,  hesitated  to  take  so 
grave  a  responsibility.  "The  man  who  hesitates  is 
lost,"  and  the  golden  opportunity,  once  within  his 
grasp,  was,  through  the  skilful  maneuvering  of  the 
Confederate  leader,  placed  forever  beyond  his  reach. 

So  the  days  slipped  by.  The  feeling  of  impatience 
grew  apace  in  the  North,  and  the  authorities  at  Wash 
ington  continually  urged  upon  McClellan  the  necessity 
for  a  forward  movement.  Then  came  the  president's 
visit  to  the  camp  and  the  review  of  the  troops  on  the  3d 
of  October.  Cheered  and  encouraged  by  his  enthu 
siastic  reception,  and  a  sight  of  the  battle-field  where  so 
desperate  and  bloody  a  conflict  had  been  waged  confirm 
ing  him  in  his  belief  that  men  who  had  worsted  the 
enemy  in  the  face  of  such  odds  had  no  reason  to  fear  to 
follow  up  the  pursuit,  President  Lincoln  determined  to 
advise  an  advance  into  Virginia. 

This  view  of  the  situation  is  in  direct  opposition  to  that 
of  the  Comte  de  Paris,  who  attempts  to  apologize  for  the 
failure  of  McClellan  to  attack  on  the  i8th  by  assuming 
that  the  fault  was  in  the  demoralization  of  the  army, 
taking  the  ground  that  two  weeks  only  having  elapsed 
since  he  had  taken  command  of  this  army,  or  rather  "this 
disorganized  mob,"  he  had  not  been  able  to  transform  it 
sufficiently  "to  secure  that  regularity  and  perseverance  in 
the  march  which,  even  more  than  steadiness  under  fire, 


l6o  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [September, 

constitutes  the  superiority  of  old  troops."  The  Comte  de 
Paris  could  have  had  no  reference  to  the  conduct  of  the 
Ninth  New  Hampshire,  for,  raw  and  undisciplined  troops 
though  they  were,  we  have  General  Nagle's  assurance 
that  they  "  behaved  like  veterans." 

That  General  McClellan  surmised  the  president's  de 
termination  is  evinced  by  the  statement  which  he  makes  in 
his  "  Own  Story,"  for,  referring  to  the  visit  to  the  camp, 
he  says, — "  His  ostensible  purpose  is  to  see  the  troops 
and  the  battle-field.  I  incline  to  think  that  the  real  pur 
pose  of  his  visit  is  to  push  on  into  a  premature  advance 
into  Virginia.  The  real  truth  is  that  my  army  is  not  fit 
to  advance." 

And  it  came  about,  that  on  the  6th  of  October,  two 
days  after  Mr.  Lincoln's  departure,  General  Halleck  tel 
egraphed  General  McClellan, — 

"The  president  directs  that  you  cross  the  Potomac  and 
give  battle  to  the  enemy  or  drive  him  south.  Your  army 
must  move  now  while  the  roads  are  good.  If  you  cross 
the  river  between  the  enemy  and  Washington,  and  cover 
the  latter  by  your  operation,  you  can  be  re-enforced  with 
30,000  men.  If  you  move  up  the  valley  of  the  Shenan- 
doah,  not  more  than  12,000  or  15,000  can  be  sent  to  you. 
The  president  advises  the  interior  line  between  Washing 
ton  and  the  enemy,  but  does  not  order  it.  He  is  very 
desirous  that  your  army  move  as  soon  as  possible." 

That  night  orders  were  issued  to  the  men  to  be  ready 
to  move  the  next  morning.  Reveille  was  sounded  at  half- 
past  three  o'clock,  and  soon  after  sunrise  an  eight-mile 
march  over  the  rugged  and  precipitous  Maryland  Heights 
was  begun.  The  way  was  exceedingly  toilsome,  the 


I 


ENOCH  C.  PAIGE,  Co.  G. 


i862.]  FROM  ANTIETAM  TO  FREDERICKSBURG.  l6l 

weather  warm,  and  the  men  were  glad  enough  when 
Pleasant  Valley  was  reached  and  a  halt  ordered. 

Here  the  army  rested  for  a  time,  for  the  purpose  of 
receiving  recruits  and  supplies,  General  McClellan  hold 
ing  persistently  to  his  opinion  that  his  army  was  not  in 
condition  for  an  advance  upon  the  enemy,  and  meeting 
with  various  objections  the  orders  sent  him  from  Wash 
ington.  Quantities  of  supplies  were  forwarded,  but  for 
some  reason  failed  to  reach  him.  So,  on  one  pretext  and 
another,  the  advance  was  delayed  until  the  North  began 
to  feel  that  McClellan  was  determined  to  wait  until  spring 
before  attempting  any  move. 

Then,  on  the  pth  of  October,  came  the  raid  of  Stuart's 
cavalry,  and  the  North  was  thoroughly  aroused.  To  be 
sure  little  real  damage  was  done  beyond  plundering  the 
country  and  destroying  the  railroad  plant  at  Chambers- 
burg,  but  it  demonstrated  how  easy  it  was  for  an  adven 
turous  band  to  make  a  sudden  attack  on  an  unprotected 
town,  and  escape  unmolested.  General  McClellan  was 
greatly  chagrined  at  this  escapade  on  the  part  of  the 
Confederates,  and  requested  that  he  be  at  once  furnished 
with  more  cavalry,  in  order  to  guard  against  future  inva 
sions.  Whereupon  President  Lincoln  shrewdly  suggest 
ed  that  the  enemy  be  given  more  occupation  south  of  the 
Potomac,  so  that  his  cavalry  would  have  no  need  to  seek 
diversion  north  of  the  river. 

It  was  quite  evident  that  General  McClellan  regarded 
General  Lee's  position  at  Winchester  as  a  Gibraltar,  and 
that  he  hesitated  to  hurl  himself  against  a  stone  wall. 
But  the  authorities  at  Washington  were  getting  tired  of 
this  irresoluteness,  and  on  the  I3th  of  October  President 
Lincoln  wrote  General  McClellan  a  letter  in  which  he 


XI 


1 62  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [October, 

clearly  defined  his  ideas  as  to  the  course  that  should  be 
pursued  with  regard  to  the  enemy,  and  skilfully  fore 
stalled  any  and  all  objections  that  could  possibly  be 
brought  to  bear  against  his  plans.  Among  other 
characteristic  expressions  were  these  : 

"  You  remember  my  speaking  to  you  of  what  I  called 
your  over-cautiousness.  Are  you  not  over-cautious 
when  you  assume  that  you  cannot  do  what  the  enemy  is 
constantly  doing  ?  Should  you  not  claim  to  be  at  least 
his  equal  in  prowess,  and  act  upon  the  claim?"  Further 
on,  the  president  says, — ''Change  positions  with  your 
enemy,  and  think  you  not  he  would  break  your  commu 
nication  with  Richmond  within  the  next  twenty-four 
hours?  You  dread  his  going  into  Pennsylvania;  but  if 
he  does  so  in  full  force,  he  gives  up  his  communication  to 
you  absolutely,  and  you  have  nothing  to  do  but  to  follow 
and  ruin  him.  Exclusive  of  the  water-line,  you  are  now 
nearer  Richmond  than  the  enemy  is,  by  the  route  that 
you  CAN  and  he  MUST  take."  And  in  conclusion  :  "It 
is  all  easy  if  our  troops  march  as  well  as  the  enemy,  and 
it  is  unmanly  to  say  that  they  cannot  do  it.  This  letter  is 
in  no  sense  an  order." 

It  is  touching  to  see  with  what  consideration  the  presi 
dent  treats  that  which  he  could  not  have  helped  feeling 
was  either  sluggishnesss  or  direct  disregard  of  his  ex 
pressed  wishes.  He  hesitates  to  command,  he  would 
rather  suggest;  for  disobedience  to  a  command  would 
look  like  insubordination,  and  was  to  be  avoided.  Still 
McClellan  hung  back,  and  October  had  nearly  gone 
by.  The  feeling  at  Washington  and  throughout  the 
North,  that  some  decisive  move  should  be  made,  and  that 
at  once,  was  growing  stronger  every  day.  Pretexts  were 


i862.]  FROM  ANTIETAM  TO  FREDERICKSBURG.  163 

no  longer  of  avail.  Halleck's  orders  grew  shorter  and 
sharper,  and,  finally,  on  the  26th  of  October,  an  advance 
was  decided  on. 

The  pleasant  weather  had  been  spent  in  camp,  and 
now  through  cold  and  storm  the  march  must  be  made. 
Heavy  rains  had  spoiled  the  roads,  and  already  the 
mountain-tops  were  white  with  the  early  snows.  The 
route  lay  along  the  valley  to  the  east  of  the  Blue  Ridge 
range  ;  on  the  opposite  side  of  which  Lee  was  now  push 
ing  his  forces  in  a  backward  move  up  the  valley,  for  the 
Confederate  commander  was  not  slow  to  see  that  the 
movement  of  the  Union  forces  down  the  valley  would 
quickly  throw  them  into  his  rear,  and  thus  cut  off  his 
base  of  supplies  at  Richmond.  This  he  could  forestall 
by  throwing  his  own  forces  to  the  rear,  with  Culpeper 
Court-house  as  the  objective  point. 

Having  once  settled  upon  a  plan  of  operations,  Gen 
eral  McClellan  advanced  his  great  army  rapidly  and  at 
the  same  time  carefully.  The  Potomac  was  crossed  at 
Berlin  and  Harper's  Ferry,  the  Ninth  corps,  under  Will- 
cox,  being  the  first  to  pass  into  Virginia  at  Berlin.  All 
the  troops  had  crossed  the  river  by  the  ist  of  November, 
and  were  winding  their  toilsome  way  along  the  eastern 
valley  of  the  Blue  Ridge. 

The  opposing  forces  were  now  in  a  position  that  would 
have  delighted  Napoleon  had  he  been  a  commander  on 
either  side.  Here  were  two  great  armies,  separated  only 
by  a  ridge  of  mountains,  with  no  less  than  six  gaps  at 
different  points,  through  any  one  of  which  either  army 
could  make  a  sudden  dash  and  deal  the  other  a  heavy 
blow  ere  it  could  rally  from  the  surprise.  Napoleon 
could  never  have  resisted  such  an  opportunity  for  a  stra 
tegic  movement,  but  except  an  occasional  skirmish  with 


164  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [November, 

the  Ninth  corps,  which  was  still  in  advance,  the  march 
was  made  with  but  little  interruption. 

Bloomfield  was  reached  November  2,  the  next  two 
days  were  occupied  in  reaching  Upperville,  and  by  the 
5th  of  November  the  Ninth  corps  had  crossed  Manassas 
railroad  between  Piedmont  and  Salem.  The  next  day 
Waterloo  on  the  Rappahannock  was  reached,  and  by  the 
pth  of  November  the  entire  force  had  closed  up,  and 
General  McClellan  had  assigned  the  positions  as  follows  : 

General  head-quarters  were  established  at  Warrenton, 
and  here  were  stationed  the  reserve  artillery  and  the 
First,  Second,  and  Fifth  corps ;  the  Ninth  corps  was  on 
the  line  of  the  Rappahannock,  in  the  vicinity  of  Water 
loo  ;  the  Sixth  corps  at  New  Baltimore  ;  the  Eleventh 
corps  at  New  Baltimore,  Gainesville,  and  Thoroughfare 
Gap  ;  Sickles's  division  of  the  Third  corps  on  the  Orange 
&  Alexandria  railroad,  from  Manassas  Junction  to  War 
renton  Junction  ;  Pleasonton  across  the  Rappahannock  at 
Amissville  and  Jefferson,  with  his  pickets  at  Hazel  river 
facing  Longstreet,  six  miles  from  Culpeper  Court-house, 
with  Bayard  near  Rappahannock  Station. 

A  heavy  storm  had  raged  for  two  days,  the  roads  were 
in  terrible  condition,  and  the  situation  of  the  army  was 
anything  but  comfortable  ;  but  the  men  were  in  surpris 
ingly  good  spirits,  and  awaited  the  outcome  of  events 
with  equanimity. 

The  awakening  was  nearer  at  hand  than  any  one 
dreamed,  for  on  the  evening  of  the  7th  of  November  an 
orderly  had  arrived  in  camp  from  Washington.  It  was 
nearly  midnight,  and  General  McClellan  was  sitting 
alone  in  his  tent,  examining  some  papers,  when  the 
orderly,  accompanied  by  General  Burnside,  entered  the 
tent  and  handed  to  General  McClellan  an  order  trans- 


i862.]  FROM  ANTIETAM  TO  FREDERICKSBURG.  165 

ferring  the  command  of  the  army  to  General  Burnside. 
McClellan's  acquiescence  in  the  decision  of  his  superi 
ors  was  both  prompt  and  cheerful.  Turning  to  Burnside, 
between  whom  and  himself  the  strongest  friendship  exis 
ted,  he  handed  him  the  order  with  the  simple  remark, 
"  Well,  Burnside,  you  are  to  command  the  army."  Nor 
was  Burnside  lacking  in  respect  and  courtesy  to  his 
friend.  When  General  McClellan  was  ready  to  leave 
he  ordered  the  troops  out  to  pass  in  review  before  him. 
It  was  the  closing  scene  in  McClellan's  military  career. 

Here  let  us  leave  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  for  a  while, 
and  do  a  little  reconnoitering  as  to  the  movements  of  the 
enemy  in  the  mean  time. 

Having  decided  to  concentrate  his  forces  in  the  vicini 
ty  of  Culpeper  Court-house,  the  Confederate  commander 
had  lost  no  time  in  putting  his  plan  into  execution.  He 
moved  his  stores  and  a  considerable  portion  of  his  artill 
ery  on  November  i,  by  way  of  Thornton's  Gap.  Long- 
street  led  his  forces  up  the  Shenandoah  as  far  as  Front 
Royal,  crossed  the  river,  and  passed  the  Blue  Ridge 
through  Chester  Gap,  closely  followed  by  D.  H.  Hill's 
division  ;  while  Jackson  occupied  the  valley  at  Millwood. 

Such  were  the  positions  of  the  two  great  forces  at  the 
time  General  Burnside  assumed  command  of  the  Army 
of  the  Potomac. 


ON  THE  MARCH. 

It  has  been  noted  that  the  Ninth  corps  was  in  the  van 
from  the  time  the  army  entered  Virginia,  so  that  the 
Ninth  New  Hampshire  had  a  share  in  all  the  adventures 
that  fall  to  the  lot  of  the  advance  corps.  We  left  them 
at  the  entrance  of  Pleasant  Valley,  Md.,  October  7, 


1 66  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [November, 

and  the  story  of  the  four  weeks  that  intervened  before  the 
stand  was  made  at  Warrenton,  Va.,  November  7,  is 
one  of  hardship  and  privation,  patiently  and  even  cheer 
fully  endured. 

It  was  at  an  early  hour  that  Tuesday  morning  that 
the  regiment  left  South  Antietam  and  began  the  as 
cent  of  Elk  mountain,  one  of  the  Blue  Ridge  range. 
The  gradual  ascent  of  the  mountain-side  in  the  cool 
shade  of  the  small  growth  of  timber  was  very  comforta 
ble,  but  the  sun  climbed  faster  than  the  men,  and  the 
hotter  the  sun  grew  the  steeper  grew  the  mountain,  and 
the  last  three  miles  of  the  ascent  was  like  climbing  up 
stairs.  There  was  many  a  sigh  of  relief  when  the  top 
was  at  last  reached,  but  the  men  speedily  discovered  that 
going  down  hill  with  a  heavy  load  on  your  back  is  a 
great  deal  harder  than  climbing  up. 

And  their  loads  were  heavy,  for  what  with  tent,  blan 
ket,  and  overcoat,  extra  clothing,  three  days  rations  in 
a  haversack,  a  canteen  of  water,  cooking  utensils,  a 
heavy  rirle  and  sabre  bayonet,  with  forty  rounds  of 
cartridges,  to  say  nothing  of  the  conveniences,  it  makes 
quite  a  bundle,  pack  it  close  as  you  may.  It  was  solid 
work  the  boys  found  before  the  eight  miles  were  cov 
ered  and  the  halt  was  made  at  Pleasant  Valley.  The 
Tenth  and  Eleventh  New  Hampshire  had  arrived  there 
the  previous  day  from  Sandy  Hook,  and  the  boys  of  the 
Ninth  were  right  glad  to  find  old  friends  awaiting  them, 
and  to  get  the  latest  news  from  home.  As  one  of  them 
expressed  it — "  It  was  like  going  out  on  the  streets  at 
Manchester,  I  knew  so  many  of  them." 

Pleasant  Valley  was  in  reality  a  quaint  little  hamlet  of 
some  over  a  hundred  families,  most  of  whom  were  loyal, 
and  the  presence  of  so  large  an  army  must  have  been 


1 862.]  FROM  ANTIETAM  TO  FREDERICKSBURG.  167 

anything  but  agreeable  to  them.  The  officers  made 
every  effort  to  protect  their  property,  though  it  would 
have  required  a  pretty  large  premium  to  insure  the  lives 
of  stray  pigs  or  poultry. 

In  everything  that  pertained  to  civilization  the  place 
was,  as  an  eminent  divine  tersely  phrased  it,  "  four  hun 
dred  years  behind  the  Northern  states."  The  houses 
were  almost  invariably  built  of  logs  rudely  locked  to 
gether  at  the  corners,  the  wide  crevices  between  being 
liberally  chinked  with  clay,  and  if  the  family  was 
unusually  prosperous  the  logs  were  treated  to  a  coat  of 
whitewash.  One  peculiar  feature  of  their  architecture 
was  that  the  huge,  uncouth  chimney  was  invariably  at 
one  end  and  outside  the  one-roomed  domicile. 

When  passing  a  cabin  of  this  description  one  rainy 
day,  one  of  the  Ninth  boys  sung  out  to  a  bareheaded, 
barefooted  youngster,  clad  in  butternut  jeans,  "You'd 
better  take  that  chimney  inside,  or  it  '11  get  wet." 
Whereat  another  comrade  drawled  out,  "  By  thunder, 
if  they  do  that  they  '11  have  to  move  the  house  out  doors, 
for  there  ain't  room  for  both  inside." 

The  interior  furnishings  were  in  keeping  with  the  style 
of  the  "mansion,"  and  all  of  the  same  primitive  charac 
ter.  There  was  usually  a  huge  cupboard  or  "press," 
which  served  as  the  family  locker,  its  loosely  hanging 
door  nearly  worn  through  by  the  successive  generations 
of  hands  that  had  opened  and  shut  it,  a  table  and  chairs, 
equally  antique  in  appearance,  with  the  addition  of  a  few 
three-legged  stools  if  the  present  occupants  were  blessed 
with  an  uncommonly  numerous  progeny,  a  four-poster 
bedstead  covered  with  gay  patchwork  quilts,  and  the 
indispensable  and  omnipresent  cradle, — the  older  chil 
dren  being  stowed  away  in  the  loft  on  "  shakedowns." 


1 68  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [November, 

Their  stay  in  this  camp  of  nearly  three  weeks  was 
made  as  comfortable  as  possible  by  the  men,  to  whom 
experience  was  teaching  many  devices  and  accomplish 
ments.  The  rations  were  monotonous  in  character,  but 
hunger  is  a  good  sauce  and  life  in  the  open  air  con 
ducive  to  a  well  developed  appetite,  so  the  hard-tack 
and  coffee,  salt  horse  and  slab  bacon,  with  an  occasional 
dish  of  rice  or  beans,  were  generally  put  out  of  sight 
with  marvellous  rapidity. 

No  beans  baked  in  a  pot  will  ever  taste  so  good  to  the 
boys  as  the  beans  they  used  to  get  in  the  army.  They 
formed  the  great  feast  of  the  week,  and  "  baking-day" 
was  sure  to  draw  a  crowrd.  No  modern  range  can  equal 
the  results  of  a  few  bushels  of  live  coals  lining  the 
bottom  and  sides  of  a  pit  in  the  ground.  The  beans, 
already  parboiled  and  liberally  interlarded  with  strips  of 
fat  pork,  were  placed  in  the  huge  iron  mess  kettles,  cov 
ered  tightly,  and  embedded  in  the  coals.  An  all-day  or 
night  bake  would  turn  out  a  dish  fit  for  a  king. 

Occasionally  a  mess  of  flour  could  be  secured,  and 
then  a  dish  of  fritters  was  in  order,  though  the  "  fixings  " 
were  lacking.  Meal  could  not  be  bought,  but  the  boys 
levied  on  the  corn-fields,  and  by  dint  of  much  patience 
manufactured  enough  meal  for  a  pudding  now  and  then, 
by  diligently  scratching  the  hardest  ears  over  a  grater 
made  from  a  tin  plate. 

Persimmons  were  just  becoming  toothsome  from  the 
early  frosts.  This  was  a  wild  fruit  hitherto  unknown 
even  in  name  to  most  of  the  boys.  The  natives  spoke 
of  them  variously  as  "  simmons,"  "  p'simmons,"  etc.,  so 
that  it  was  difficult  to  get  at  the  exact  orthography  of 
the  word.  Barber,  of  Company  E,  wanted  to  get  the 
word  just  right,  so  he  could  tell  about  them  in  a  letter, 


1 862.]  FR  OM  A NTIE  TA M  TO  FREDERICKSB  UR  G.  1 69 

and  so  he  asked  a  woman,  "How  do  you  spell  the 
word?"  She  looked  blank  for  a  moment,  and  then 
remarked,  "  I  reckon  we-uns  don't  spell  it  no-ways." 

Vegetables  were  especially  scarce,  and  when  a  man 
wanted  to  give  himself  an  extra  choice  treat,  he  saved 
up  his  coffee  till  there  was  enough  to  exchange  with  a 
"  native  "  for  a  few  potatoes.  Then  he  built  a  little  fire, 
cooked  his  potatoes  in  the  quart  tin  cup  which  every 
soldier  carried,  and  if  he  had  money  enough  to  buy  a 
bit  of  butter,  no  epicure  ever  enjoyed  the  choicest  morsel 
more. 

But,  after  all,  it  was  n't  home,  and  more  than  one  of 
the  boys  felt  a  longing  for  "  home  and  mother"  as  the 
days  wore  slowly  away.  In  their  letters  they  begged 
for  the  most  trivial  details — the  price  of  apples,  how 
much  cider  had  been  made,  how  the  sick  neighbor  was 
getting  along,  had  the  trouble  in  the  church  been  set 
tled.  The  tears  and  smiles  start  alternately  as  one 
reads  these  letters,  now  timeworn  and  stained.  The 
gray-haired  men  of  to-day  were  only  boys  back  in 
the  '6os. 

Perhaps  the  life  bore  the  hardest  aspect  to  the  sick, — 
and  there  were  many  of  these, — for  the  regimental  hos 
pital  was  in  an  old  barn,  with  no  chance  for  a  fire  and 
few  comforts.  There  were  two  or  three  nurses,  brave 
women  whom  the  men  loved  and  reverenced  for  their 
kind  words  and  tender  touch  that  made  the  restless  lad 
grow  quiet  and  calmed  his  troubled  sleep.  Now  and 
then  a  poor  worn  body,  wearied  with  the  struggle  for 
existence,  dropped  its  burden  of  suffering  and  was 
borne  to  its  last  long  home  in  the  bosom  of  mother  earth. 

During  the  encampment  at  Pleasant  Valley  every 
effort  was  made  to  place  the  army  in  suitable  condition, 


170  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [November, 

should  another  battle  ensue,  and  also  to  replace  the 
necessary  clothing  and  outfits  that  had  been  lost  at 
South  Mountain  and  Antietam,  in  view  of  the  cold 
weather  that  would  soon  be  upon  them.  Regular  camp 
drill  and  duty  were  inaugurated,  and  orders  were  promul 
gated  in  regard  to  straggling  and  absence  from  command. 
Life  was  not  all  drill  and  duty,  however,  and  some 
good  stories  "have  been  furnished  by  the  men  who  par 
ticipated  in  the  scenes  they  so  graphically  depict.  Let 
them  speak  for  themselves  : 

Lieutenant  Moses. — About  the  time  when  the  troops 
were  going  into  camp  at  Pleasant  Valley,  the  last  camp 
made  before  going  into  Virginia,  some  of  the  boys 
climbed  over  the  fence  to  get  some  apples,  which  was 
contrary  to  orders.  Just  then  General  Sturgis  rode  up 
with  his  staff,  and  they  all  dismounted,  to  make  their 
head-quarters.  The  general  saw  one  of  the  fellows 
stooping  down  to  pick  up  the  apples,  and  gave  him  a 
shove  and  a  kick.  Quick  as  a  flash  the  man  turned 
around,  his  fist  doubled  up,  and  shouted  "You  son  of 
a" — and  then  he  saw  who  it  was  and  made  tracks. 
Sturgis  called  out  to  him  to  halt,  but  the  man  only  ran 
the  faster,  and  no  one  happened  to  know  him. 

Then  the  general  caught  sight  of  me,  and  hailed  me 
as  "Lieutenant!"  I  halted  and  saluted,  and  then  he 
asked,  "How  long  have  you  been  here?"  "Only  a 
few  minutes,  sir."  "  Do  you  know  what  has  been 
going  on  there?"  "Yes,  sir;  I  think  those  soldiers 
have  been  taking  apples  from  that  orchard,  very  much 
against  the  protestations  of  the  guard."  "And  you 
stood  here, — you,  a  commissioned  officer — and  allowed 
it  to  go  on?"  "  General,  I  have  been  here  only  a  few 


i862.]  FROM  ANTIE  TAM  TO  FREDERICKSB URG.  171 

minutes,  awaiting  the  arrival  of  my  train."  "  Don't  tell 
me — you  saw  it  going  on.  Go  to  your  camp,  and  place 
yourself  under  arrest !  " 

This  happened  about  noon,  and  the  next  morning  I 
began  to  think  that  there  might  be  something  more  in  it 
than  I  really  appreciated.  So  I  sent  for  Colonel  Fel 
lows,  and  explained  the  situation  to  him  the  best  that  I 
could.  The  colonel  had  a  good  laugh  at  me,  and  then 
he  very  kindly  sat  down  and  wrote  a  letter  of  explana 
tion  to  General  Sturgis.  He  said  that  I  was  totally 
inexperienced  in  military  matters,  and  begged  that  as  an 
excuse  for  my  failing  to  stop  the  soldiers.  General 
Sturgis  was  pleased  to  answer,  that  on  the  strength  of 
Colonel  Fellows's  explanation  he  would  excuse  me, 
through  ignorance  of  duty,  but  on  all  future  occasions  it 
must  be  seen  to  that  the  rules  and  regulations  were 
observed.  It  was  pretty  hard  lines  to  be  let  off  on  the 
ground  of  being  a  greenhorn,  but  I  concluded  not  to  be 
too  particular. 

Sergeant  O.  D.  Robinson. — While  we  were  in  Pleas 
ant  Valley  the  orders  were  very  strict  about  foraging 
around.  But  the  boys  got  tremendously  hungry  for 
some  apples,  and  so  some  of  them  made  arrangements 
with  a  man  to  bring  in  a  good  big  load,  and  sent  a 
guard  out  to  meet  him.  Well,  the  man  brought  in  one 
of  those  big  prairie  schooners  loaded  to  the  brim,  and  as 
he  sold  them  very  reasonably,  it  took  only  a  few  minutes 
to  clean  them  out,  and  the  man  hastily  departed.  The 
boys  thought  the  apples  were  rather  green  and  hard  for 
that  time  of  year,  but  it  was  lucky  for  that  man  that  he 
was  out  of  reach  when  they  found  that  he  had  sold  them 
green  persimmons  for  apples. 

And  speaking  of  persimmons  brings  to  mind  a  story 


172  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [November, 

whose  point  will  be  appreciated  by  those  whose  stom 
achs  felt  the  need  of  a  "gathering-string"  more  than 
once  in  those  days  of  hard  and  scanty  fare.  With 
Stonewall  Jackson,  straggling,  especially  during  a  for 
ward  march,  was  an  unpardonable  offence,  but  there 
was  one  instance  in  which  it  was  promptly  condoned. 
During  a  forced  march  through  the  pine  and  'simmons 
regions,  he  stopped  to  consult  with  some  general  officers 
until  the  whole  command  had  passed  some  distance 
ahead.  Pushing  rapidly  on  to  rejoin  them,  he  suddenly 
came  to  a  halt  as  he  discovered  a  soldier  up  a  'simmon 
tree. 

"What  are  you  doing  so  far  in  the  rear?  "  cried  the 
general.  "I'm  eating  'simmons,"  said  the  soldier. 
"  Why,  they  're  not  ripe  !  "  exclaimed  the  general,  with 
some  sarcasm.  "I  know  it,"  returned  the  soldier,  "I 
want  'em  green."  "  But  why  do  you  eat  green  'sim 
mons?  "  persisted  the  surprised  commander.  "  To  draw 
my  stomach  up  to  fit  my  rations."  And  the  general 
rode  along. 

On  one  occasion,  as  the  boys  were  going  along  past  a 
farm-house,  and  the  orders  were  not  to  touch  anything,  a 
flock  of  geese  came  skurrying  along  the  road,  and 
Foster,  of  Company  I,  managed  to  grab  one.  Just  then 
some  of  the  division  officers  came  cantering  up,  and 
"Jake"  Green,  who  was  officer  of  the  guard,  called 
out,  "  Foster,  you  drops  dot  goose!"  Foster  dropped 
it,  and  the  officers  rode  on,  while  poor  Jake  groaned 
out,  "Oh,  you  d d  fool,  what  for  you  minds  me  !  " 

One  day  at  Pleasant  Valley  "Jim"  Wentworth  hap 
pened  to  spy  an  apple-tree  that  was  unguarded,  and  he 
and  two  or  three  others  started  for  it  in  a  hurry.  The 
provost  guard  put  after  them,  and  reached  the  tree  first. 


i86a.]          FROM  ANTIETAM  TO  FREDERICKSBURG.  173 

"  That's  right,"  said  Jim,  generously  interlarding  his 
retort  with  "  swear  words,"  "guard  'em,  guard  'em; 
and  when  you  get  where  the  rebs  are,  I  hope  you  '11  put 
a  guard  'round  them." 

Captain  Babbitt. — As  we  were  going  into  camp  at 
night  at  the  Iron  Works,  Colonel  Fellows,  who  had  been 
riding  ahead,  dropped  back  and  said  to  me,  "  Captain, 
have  n't  you  got  three  or  four  good  smart  fellows  in  your 
company  ?"  I  said,  "Yes,  sir;  I  guess  some  of  them 
are  pretty  fair."  "Why  I  asked,  Captain,"  said  he, 
"  was  because  over  the  brow  of  the  hill  there  is  a  flock 
of  wild  turkeys.  I  know  they  are  wild,  because  there 
is  n't  a  house  in  sight.  Some  smart  fellows  might  get  a 
few  of  them."  Well,  we  had  some  of  the  boys  go  ahead, 
and  sure  enough,  they  got  five  or  six  nice  fat  turkeys. 
We  dressed  one  and  sent  it  down  to  the  colonel',  and  he 
said  it  was  the  best  ivild  turkey  he  ever  tasted. 

Herman  A.  Clement. — It  was  while  we  were  resting 
at  Pleasant  Valley  that  I  first  found  that  my  drawers 
were  covering  considerably  more  than  one  pair  of  legs  : 
and  oh,  how  ashamed  I  was,  and  afraid  that  some  one 
would  see  me  having  a  skirmish  with  the  "  gray-backs," 
with  whom,  however,  it  came  to  a  drawn  battle  later 
on, — and  I  had  lots  of  companions,  too,  as  I  found  out 
before  long.  And  this  reminds  me  of  what  the  colonel 
said  to  an  Irishman,  and  the  ready  answer  Pat  gave  him. 
Pat  was  sitting  on  the  ground,  his  trousers  ofT,  busily 
engaged  in  evicting  some  obnoxious  tenants.  The 
colonel  came  riding  alongside,  and  noticing  Pat's  occu 
pation,  halted  and  said, — "  Ah,  good  morning,  Pat !  So 
you're  picking  them  out,  are  you?"  "No,  bejabers," 
came  the  ready  retort,  "  I  'm  takin'  thim  as  they  coom, 
sorr ! ' 


174  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [November, 

One  man,  who  evidently  hadn't  made  all  the  use  he 
might  of  the  common  schools  in  his  earlier  years,  wrote 
home, — "Yesterday  I  saw  a  louce  as  big  as  a  colonel  of 
Rise  on  a  man's  coat." 

Another  says,  "  Capt !  I  have  a  new  way  to  beat  the 
graybacks."  "How's  that,  Jerry?"  "Why,  you  see 
they  wants  to  keep  warm,  so  I  turns  my  shirt  wrong 
side  out  and  they  travels  around  to  the  inside,  then  I 
turns  it  again,  and  so  tires  them  out  and  kills  them  by 
long  marches." 

Charles  S.  Stevens. — I  know  something  about  "red 
tape "  in  the  army,  for  I  was  arrested  and  put  under 
guard  for  going  into  an  orchard,  and  it  was  a  week 
before  my  case  was  brought  to  trial.  .  The  charge  was 
for  waste  and  spoil,  but  they  could  prove  nothing  against 
me.  All  the  same,  it  was  nearly  a  week  longer  before  I 
was  released  and  the  charge  dismissed. 


AGAIN   IN    LINE. 

On  the  afternoon  of  the  25th  of  October  orders  were 
received  to  have  the  command  ready  to  move  on  the  fol 
lowing  morning,  with  two  days  rations  in  haversacks 

S3  O  J 

and  fifty  rounds  of  cartridges.  Such  an  order  means  a 
lively  time  in  camp.  Wood  and  water  must  be  lugged 
for  the  cooks,  rations  drawn,  luggage  repacked,  and 
then  comes  the  "falling  in"  of  all  the  separate  com 
panies  for  their  sugar  and  coffee,  meat  and  hard-tack, 
ammunition,  and  all  the  other  detail ;  each  company 
expediting  business  with  systematic  dispatch,  though  to 
an  onlooker,  unused  to  the  discipline  of  army  life,  every 
thing  is  in  confusion. 


1862.]  FROM  ANTIETAM  TO  FREDERICKSBURG.  175 

The  morning  brought  cold  and  dismal  weather,  and 
about  nine  o'clock  it  began  to  rain,  continuing  all  that 
day  and  the  following  night.  All  that  long,  weary  day 
the  men  passed  in  their  little  "  shelties,"  through  whose 
cotton  roof  occasional  rain-drops  made  their  way  in  spite 
of  the  cornstalk  thatching.  But  when  the  night  came 
down,  dark  and  stormy,  the  men  turned  in,  with  thank 
ful  hearts  for  even  these  poor  substitutes  for  a  roof. 

Tents  were  struck  about  noon  on  the  following  day, 
and  it  was  not  long  before  the  knapsacks  were  shoul 
dered  and  the  long,  toilsome  march  through  the  valley 
east  of  the  Blue  Ridge  began.  The  brigade  pioneers — 
about  two  hundred  in  number — had  the  advance.  These 
pioneers  were  selected  from  all  the  companies  in  the 
brigade,  and  generally  comprised  the  stoutest  and  best 
men.  In  addition  to  their  regular  equipments,  each  car 
ried  an  ax,  spade,  or  pickax,  and  it  was  their  business 
to  remove  temporary  obstructions,  fell  trees  or  roll  logs 
for  shaky  bridges  across  the  creeks,  and  the  like.  Next 
to  them  marched  the  Forty-eighth  Pennsylvania,  then 
the  Sixth  New  Hampshire,  the  Second  Maryland,  the 
Ninth  New  Hampshire,  and  closing  up  the  rear  was  the 
Seventh  Rhode  Island. 

The  roads  were  exceedingly  muddy,  but  the  command 
pushed  along  as  fast  as  possible,  moving  along  the  line 
of  the  river  and  railroad.  Weavertown,  once  a  thriving 
manufacturing  village,  but  now  only  a  picture  of  desola 
tion  and  neglect,  was  the  first  station  on  the  way,  and 
then  came  Knoxville.  Crossing  the  canal,  the  tow-path 
was  followed  as  far  as  Berlin,  where,  the  river  having 
been  bridged  with  pontoons — the  Ninth's  first  experience 
with  these  structures — their  corps  was  the  first  of  the 
army  to  enter  upon  "  sacred  soil." 


176  NINTH  NE  W  HAMPSHIRE.  [November, 

When  the  brigade  encamped  that  night,  General 
Sturgis  established  his  head-quarters  on  a  "Secesh" 
plantation,  and  he  was  not  a  little  annoyed  to  find  that 
some  of  the  boys  were  cultivating  too  intimate  an 
acquaintance  with  his  host's  poultry — in  fact,  he  so  far 
forgot  his  dignity,  that  spying  a  fellow  making  off 
with  a  loudly  squawking  hen  he  at  once  gave  chase. 
Straight  through  the  camp  they  ran,  the  soldier  still 
clinging  to  his  vainly  protesting  prize  and  all  the  on 
lookers  hugely  enjoying  the  fun.  The  general  finally 
cornered  his  man  ;  but  the  saddest  of  the  joke  was,  that 
while  he  was  so  busily  engaged  in  rescuing  his  host's 
property,  some  unprincipled  wretch  "looted"  every  drop 
of  whiskey  from  his  head-quarters  tent. 

The  regiment  left  its  first  camp  in  Virginia  on  the 
29th,  at  three  o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  marching  five 
miles  through  Lovettsville  to  Baldwinsville,  where  a 
good  camping-ground  was  found. 

Reveille  was  sounded  at  three  o'clock  on  October  30, 
breakfast  was  hastily  cooked  and  eaten,  the  brigade  was 
soon  in  line,  and  Wheatland  was  reached  and  the  Ninth 
New  Hampshire  comfortably  established  in  a  nice  grassy 
field  by  nine  o'clock  in  the  forenoon. 

It  was  on  the  second  day  of  their  stay  here  that  Bar 
ber  and  Robinson  of  Company  E  made  a  strike  for  high 
living.  For  the  best  of  reasons  they  were  no  longer 
able  to  patronize  the  sutler,  so  they  put  their  heads 
together  as  to  how  they  could  make  a  "  raise."  It  was 
butchering  day,  and  Robinson  went  out  where  the  bri 
gade  butchers  were  slaughtering  cattle  and  begged  a 
large  tripe,  and  having  washed  it  and  cleaned  it  with 
lye,  put  it  on  to  boil  for  supper.  In  the  mean  time  Bar 
ber  had  gone  to  a  mill  at  some  distance  from  the  camp, 


SERGT.  ALVIN  A.  YOUNG,  Co.  K.  ANDREW  J.  SAWYER,  Co.  K. 


WILLIAM  H.  PERRY,  Co.  K. 


ALBERT  P.  DAVIS,  Co.  K. 


i862.]  FROM  ANTIETAM  TO  FREDERICKSBURG.  177 

where  the  combined  capital  of  the  firm  enabled  him  to 
procure  a  few  pounds  of  meal.  This  he  "toted"  back 
to  camp,  arriving  there  just  as  Robinson  pronounced 
the  tripe  "done  to  a  turn!"  Sprinkled  with  the  meal 
and  fried,  it  was  a  supper  that  made  the  other  fellows' 
mouths  water.  But  the  boys  had  worked  hard  for  their 
prize,  and  deserved  all  the  enjoyment  they  got. 

That  evening  a  large  mail  arrived,  and  if  their  friends 
could  have  looked  in  on  the  camp  that  night,  as  the 
soldiers  sat  around  the  blazing  fires  reading  their  pre 
cious  letters,  or  lay  outstretched  eagerly  scanning  the 
papers  spread  out  before  them,  they  might  have  realized 
something  of  what  it  meant  to  the  boys  to  hear  from 
home. 

The  clear  notes  of  the  bugle  rang  through  the  camp  at 
an  early  hour  on  the  second  day  of  November,  and  hav 
ersacks  and  cartridge  boxes  having  been  replenished, 
the  line  of  march  was  again  taken  up.  The  day  was 
as  warm  as  in  June,  the  roads  were  a  mass  of  pow 
dery  dust,  and  several  times  during  the  day  brief  halts 
were  necessary  to  relieve  the  blinded  eyes  and  smarting 
throats  as  the  men  plodded  wearily  on.  Barber  and 
Robinson  took  turns  at  transporting  a  pailful  of  their 
precious  tripe,  but  in  an  unguarded  moment,  just  before 
going  into  camp  at  night,  Barber  set  the  pail  down  for  an 
instant — some  one  kindly  relieved  him  of  any  further  care. 

The  weather  was  very  changeable,  and  the  next  day 
the  men  suffered  intensely  from  the  cold,  though  when 
the  halt  for  the  night  was  made  some  of  the  boys  man 
aged  to  secure  a  warm  nest  from  a  near-by  wheatstack 
before  a  guard  could  surround  it.  One  day  was  very 
much  like  another  in  the  monotonous  routine  of  march, 
halt,  and  sleep. 


XII 


NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [November, 

Perhaps  the  most  uncomfortable  day's  journey  was  that 
of  November  7,  the  last  before  the  stand  was  made  at 
Waterloo  on  the  Rappahannock.  The  tents  were  struck 
about  eight  o'clock  in  the  morning,  in  a  blinding  snow 
storm,  in  which  the  men  stood  for  nearly  two  hours 
waiting  for  the  order  to  march.  Then  the  tents  were 
pitched  again,  and  the  men  made  themselves  as  com 
fortable  as  they  could  till  the  middle  of  the  afternoon, 
when  the  order  was  given  to  move  on.  Wet  and  heavy 
as  the  tents  were,  it  was  no  easy  task  to  roll  and  shoulder 
them,  but  it  was  done  at  last,  and  despite  the  blustering 
wind  and  drifting  snow  the  march  was  begun. 

On  and  on,  for  six  long,  weary  miles,  over  a  wretched 
road — rough,  muddy,  slippery,  full  of  slough-holes,  and 
crossed  by  numerous  bridgeless  streams.  Dripping  with 
perspiration,  notwithstanding  it  is  so  cold,  they  are  al 
most  breathless  as  they  reach  the  summit  of  a  high 
hill  and  come  to  a  halt.  In  the  bitter  wind  they  stand, 
the  snow  sifting  down  their  necks  until  they  seem 
encased  in  an  icy  shroud  and  the  water  freezes  in  the 
canteens. 

"About  face  ! "  comes  the  order,  and  at  a  pace  border 
ing  on  the  double-quick  back  they  go  over  the  whole 
route,  almost  to  the  place  they  started  from.  Another 
road  is  taken,  the  men  trudge  painfully  on  for  a  few 
miles  more,  and  it  is  long  past  midnight  when  the  line 
swings  into  the  woods  beside  the  road  and  comes  to  a 
final  halt.  The  snow  is  scraped  away  and  tents  are 
pitched.  The  neighboring  rail  fences  afford  plenty  of 
fuel,  and  it  is  not  long  before  brightly  blazing  fires 
lighten  the  thick  darkness  of  the  forest  with  their  ruddy 
glow.  Quickly  the  men  dispose  themselves,  with  feet 
to  the  fire,  silence  settles  down  upon  the  camp,  and  in 


1 862.]  FROM  A NTIE  TA M  TO  FREDERICKSB  URG.  179 

a  few  minutes  the  soldiers  are  sleeping  as  sweetly  as  if 
in  downy  beds  at  home. 

During  the  march  along  the  valley  the  men  were 
ordered  to  keep  an  especially  sharp  lookout,  to  prevent 
a  surprise  by  Longstreet's  forces,  who  were  reported  to 
be  waiting  at  Snicker's  Gap  to  contest  the  further  advance 
of  the  corps.  The  expected  brush  with  the  Confeder 
ates  failed  to  materialize,  but  Captain  Babbitt  and  Ser 
geant  Robinson  are  responsible  for  a  couple  of  stories 
of  what  they  did  find  at  Snicker's  Gap  : 

Captain  Babbitt. — The  orders  were  very  strict  against 
the  soldiers  taking  anything  from  the  people  in  the  loyal 
part  of  Virginia,  and  a  close  watch  was  maintained  for 
possible  offenders.  One  of  the  men  managed  to  get  hold 
of  a  nice  fat  sheep,  and  was  making  for  his  tent  with  all 
speed.  He  had  almost  reached  it,  and  was  chuckling 
over  his  good  fortune  when  an  officer  caught  sight  of 
him.  "  What  is  this?  Don't  you  understand  that  you 
are  not  to  forage  in  this  part  of  the  country?"  "Yes, 
sir;"  was  the  ready  reply,  "  but  I  was  taking  this  over 
to  Sturgis's  quarters." 

Well,  the  officer  gave  him  a  raking-over  and  then  let 
him  go.  It  was  n't  long  before  the  same  officer  caught 
him  with  another  choice  piece  of  mutton  strapped  to  his 
shoulders.  "What  do  you  mean  by  disobeying  orders 
within  forty-eight  hours  after  they  have  been  given  to 
you?"  "  Well,  I  was  walking  along  the  road  minding 

my  own  business  and  this  d d  sheep  jumped  over  the 

fence  and  began  to  butt  me.  I  wa'  n't  a-going  to  stand 
that — orders  or  no  orders — and  so  I  killed  him."  But  he 
didn't  get  off  so  easily  this  time,  in  spite  of  his  ingenuity 
in  inventing  excuses. 


l8o  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [November, 

Sergeant  Robinson. — One  morning  the  Company  E 
boys  came  into  camp,  after  having  been  out  all  night  on 
picket,  greatly  elated  over  having  killed  a  calf,  and 
boasting  of  the  nice  mess  of  fresh  meat  they  would  have. 
They  had  got  it  hidden  all  right,  and  after  being  relieved 
from  duty  were  going  out  to  get  it.  The  boys  got  out 
their  fry-pans,  but  alas  !  the  scouts,  unlike  the  men  that 
were  sent  to  spy  out  the  Promised  Land,  returned  empty- 
handed.  Such  a  set  of  crestfallen  fellows  you  never 
saw.  Somebody  had  chanced  -to  stumble  on  their  hiding- 
place,  and  that  time  the  laugh  was  on  Company  E. 

When  the  Ninth  was  on  guard  duty  at  Pleasant  Valley 
one  of  the  men  was  sitting  astride  the  trunk  of  a  fallen 
tree  when  General  Sturgis  came  riding  along.  Instead 
of  getting  up,  and  saluting  the  general  properly,  the 
man  presented  arms  by  resting  his  musket  on  the  butt  of 
the  tree  where  he  was  sitting.  The  general  dismounted, 
and  you  may  be  sure  that  fellow  never  forgot  the  lesson. 


CHAPTER  VI. 
FREDERICKSBURG. 

How  General  Burnside  would  execute  the  important 
trust  committed  to  his  care,  was  a  question  that  was  fre 
quently  asked  in  the  anxious  days  that  followed  his 
assumption  of  the  command.  Truly  it  was  a  great 
responsibility.  A  force  of  127,574  officers  and  men  was 
massed  in  the  vicinity  of  Warrenton,  and  to  this  was 
added  the  direction  of  the  troops  engaged  in  the  defence 
of  Washington  and  the  upper  Potomac, — in  all,  225,000 
men.  Though  the  season  was  far  advanced,  there  was 
yet  time  to  assume  the  aggressive  and  deal  a  decisive 
blow. 

After  consultation  with  General  Halleck,  General 
Burnside  decided  to  cross  his  army  by  the  fords  of  the 
upper  Rappahannock,  and  then  move  down  and  seize 
the  heights  south  of  Fredericksburg.  At  the  same  time 
a  small  force  was  to  be  sent  north  of  the  river  to  re-open 
the  railroad  and  re-build  the  bridges.  To  provide  the 
means  of  subsistence  for  this  large  force,  General  Burn- 
side  suggested  that  at  least  thirty  canal-boats  and  barges 
be  loaded  with  commissary  stores  and  forage,  and  towed 
to  the  neighborhood  of  Aquia  Creek,  from  which  place 
they  could  be  brought  into  Belle  Plain,  after  the  arrival 
of  the  army  in  that  vicinity.  These  were  to  be  followed 
by  enough  stores  and  forage  to  provide  for  the  army  for 
forty  days,  and  a  quantity  of  beef  cattle  was  to  be 
started  from  Washington,  by  way  of  Dumfries,  together 


1 8  2  NINTH  NE  W  HAMPSHIRE.  [November, 

with  wagon-trains  loaded  with  small  stores.  This  train 
was  to  be  preceded  by  enough  pontoons  to  allow  of  a 
double  track  across  the  Rappahannock,  the  responsibility 
of  forwarding  the  supplies  and  pontoons  being  assumed 
by  General  Halleck. 

Such,  in  brief,  was  the  plan  finally  settled  upon,  and 
it  having  received  the  president's  assent,  General  Burn- 
side  at  once  put  his  army  in  motion.  There  were  three 
grand  divisions  of  two  corps  each, — General  Sumner 
being  in  command  of  the  right,  consisting  of  the  Ninth 
and  Second  corps  ;  General  Hooker  of  the  centre,  or 
Third  and  Fifth  corps ;  and  General  Franklin  of  the 
left,  or  First  and  Sixth  corps. 

At  daylight  on  the  I5th  of  November,  General  Sum- 
ner's  command  set  out  towards  the  Rappahannock,  the 
advance  reaching  Falmouth  on  the  lyth.  Here  they 
were  opened  upon  by  a  battery  of  artillery  posted  on  the 
opposite  side  of  the  river,  but  one  of  our  batteries  being 
brought  into  position  soon  poured  in  so  hot  a  fire  on  the 
enemy  as  to  drive  them  from  their  guns.  Then  they 
awaited  the  arrival  of  the  rest  of  the  army,  which  had 
started  on  the  i6th.  General  Franklin  concentrated  his 
force  in  the  vicinity  of  Stafford  Court-house,  to  the  east 
of  Falmouth,  and  General  Hooker  occupied  Hartwood 
on  the  west. 

General  Burnside  reached  Falmouth  on  the  I9th. 
The  president  had  advocated  rapidity  of  movement. 
The  army  was  on  the  spot,  but  the  pontoons  and  sup 
plies  were  not,  and  without  them  further  advance  was 
impossible.  The  Rappahannock  is  only  a  small  stream 
as  it  winds  its  way  down  through  the  mountains,  but 
below  Warrenton  it  receives  several  tributaries,  that 
swell  it  into  a  deep  and  rapid  river.  This  was  the 


1 862.]  FREDERICKSB  URG.  183 

obstacle  that  now  intervened  between  General  Burnside 
and  the  occupation  of  the  coveted  heights  above  Freder- 
icksburg — an  obstacle  which  he  had  purposed  to  over 
come,  but  which  he  was  prevented  from  doing  by  the 
non-arrival  of  the  supplies  promised  by  General  Hal- 
leek.  Somebody  had  blundered.  It  matters  not  at 
whose  door  lay  the  fault,  but  that  blunder  cost  the  coun 
try  dear. 

General  Lee  had  been  sorely  puzzled  by  the  sudden 
move  of  General  Burnside  from  Warrenton  to  Falmouth  ; 
but  whatever  the  motive  of  it  might  be,  he  determined  to 
forestall  its  execution,  and  therefore  hurriedly  moved  his 
army  across  the  country  and  himself  occupied  the  heights 
of  Fredericksburg.  When  the  clouds  of  mist  rolled 
back  from  the  banks  of  the  Rappahannock  on  the  morn 
ing  of  the  22d  of  November,  the  frowning  cannon  and 
gleaming  bayonets  of  the  Confederate  army  confronted 
the  Union  forces. 

General  Burnside's  plan  had  failed  through  no  fault 
of  his  own,  yet  he  was  not  disposed  to  accept  defeat  so 
easily, — the  main  strength  of  the  Rebellion  was  vested 
in  the  army  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  river,  and  he 
determined  to  make  a  vigorous  effort  to  break  it.  If  he 
succeeded,  it  would  be  a  glorious  triumph ;  if  he  failed, 
he  would  still  possess  the  consciousness  of  having  been 
faithful  to  his  trust.  Active  preparations  were  at  once 
begun,  and  within  three  weeks  his  command  was  ready 
for  battle. 

It  was  evident  that  the  movement  must  be  one  of 
aggression,  for  General  Lee's  attitude  was  simply  one  of 
defence.  The  Confederate  commander  did  not  care  to 
precipitate  an  action  ;  his  army  would  be  the  gainer  by  a 
winter's  recuperation  ;  at  the  same  time  his  position  at 


184  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [November, 

Fredericksburg  gave  him  command  of  the  railroads 
running  to  Richmond,  which  could  thus  be  used  as  a 
base  for  supplies  ;  and  this  naturally  fortified  position  he 
at  once  proceeded  to  render  almost  impregnable. 

To  properly  understand  the  difficulties  with  which  our 
army  had  to  contend  at  Fredericksburg,  a  brief  descrip 
tion  of  the  surroundings  is  necessary.  The  part  which 
the  Rappahannock  plays  has  already  been  mentioned. 
Two  bridges  which  formerly  spanned  the  river  had  been 
destroyed  in  the  course  of  the  war,  which  explains  the 
importance  attached  to  the  delayed  pontoon  trains. 
Beyond,  the  river  bank  rises  in  a  succession  of  natural 
terraces.  On  the  first  of  these,  in  a  plain  about  a  mile 
and  a  half  in  length  by  a  half  mile  in  width,  lies  the 
main  part  of  the  city  of  Fredericksburg,  the  centre  of  an 
amphitheatre  of  hills,  now  covered  with  earthworks  and 
large  and  small  redoubts.  Pickets  were  stationed  along 
the  river  for  nearly  twenty  miles,  and  rude  defences 
established  at  the  points  which  were  fordable  below  the 
city,  the  Confederate  lines  extending  from  Massaponax 
river  on  the  right  to  the  plank  road  leading  to  Salem 
church  and  Chancellorsville.  To  cross  the  river  in  the 
face  of  an  enemy  so  strongly  intrenched,  looked  like  a 
forlorn  hope,  yet  General  Burnside  decided  to  hazard  at 
least  an  attempt. 

The  North,  through  the  public  press,  had  kept  up  a 
continual  clamor  that  something  should  be  done.  In  the 
face  of  obstacles  whose  practical  insurmountability  they 
could  not  seem  to  comprehend,  they  demanded  that 
General  Burnside  should  move — somewhere.  The  fol 
lowing  extract  from  Harper  s  Weekly  of  November  29, 
1862,  will  serve  as  a  sample  of  the  goading  to  which  he 
was  constantly  subjected  : 


i862.]  FREDERICKSBURG.  185 

"  Time  presses.  More  than  half  of  November  is  gone. 
In  a  month  we  shall  again  begin  to  have  our  ears  dinned 
with  the  sickening  old  cry  of  mud,  mud,  mud.  Let  us 
hope  and  pray  that  our  gallant  Burnside  will  realize  the 
vital  urgency  of  the  case,  and  will  not  lose  a  day  or  an 
hour  in  pushing  forward  at  any  and  all  hazards.  Delays 
are  now  as  fatal  as  defeats.  If  we  do  not  take  Richmond 
before  Christmas,  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  will  lose 
more  men  from  disease  in  their  winter  quarters  than 
have  perished  in  the  bloodiest  battle  of  the  war." 

About  eighteen  miles  below  Fredericksburg  is  the 
little  town  of  Port  Royal,  from  which  point,  could  a 
crossing  be  made,  the  rear  of  the  Confederate  line  could 
be  reached,  and  the  works  on  the  heights  rendered  prac 
tically  useless.  It  seemed  a  better  point  for  turning  the 
enemy's  position  than  any  above,  and  General  Burnside 
settled  on  the  plan  of  seizing  Port  Royal  as  a  means 
towards  dislodging  the  enemy's  right. 

General  Franklin  was  ordered  to  move  his  command 
from  Stafford  Court-house  down  the  river  to  a  point 
nearly  opposite  Port  Royal,  and  a  portion  of  the  Potomac 
flotilla  was  moved  up  the  Rappahannock  to  near  the 
same  point,  so  that  on  the  ist  of  December  the  Union 
lines  extended  from  King  George  Court-house  to  Stafford 
Court-house,  and  from  thence  to  the  road  leading  to 
Alexandria. 

Through  the  month  of  November  and  the  early  days 
of  December  it  had  been  cold  and  stormy,  and  with  the 
forming  of  ice  in  the  Potomac  there  was  danger  of  the 
gunboats  in  the  Rappahannock  being  caught  and  frozen 
up;  but  at  length  the  weather  moderated,  and  fogs  from 
the  river  hid  the  hostile  forces  from  each  other's  view 
the  major  part  of  the  short  winter  days,  and  under  this 


1 86  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [December, 

favorable    cover    operations  were   pushed  with   all    pos 
sible  speed. 

In  the  mean  time  General  Lee,  too,  had  been  on  the 
alert,  and  having  divined  General  Burnside's  plan  of 
crossing  at  Port  Royal,  he  at  once  ordered  General 
Jackson  with  a  large  force  to  guard  the  coveted  station. 
General  Burnside's  stratagem  had  succeeded.  Having 
diverted  the  attention  of  the  enemy  for  the  time  being 
by  his  preliminary  move,  he  proceeded,  while  still  keep 
ing  up  the  pretence  of  crossing  at  Port  Royal,  to  carry 
out  his  original  plan  of  crossing  the  river  directly  in 
front  of  the  city,  and,  having  moved  the  army  through 
the  town,  charging  the  enemy's  position  on  the  heights 
beyond.  Crossing  the  river  seemed  a  comparatively 
easy  task  beside  climbing  the  slopes  under  the  range 
of  those  black-mouthed  guns,  but  the  river  was  destined 
to  be  deeply  dyed  with  the  crimson  life-blood  of  many  a 
heroic  soul,  long  ere  the  slopes  were  reached. 

Now  the  time  for  action  had  come.  The  loth  of 
December  was  occupied  in  concentrating  the  army  along 
the  river  bank,  while  the  artillery  was  ranged  along 
the  plateau  extending  from  Falmouth  to  a  point  nearly 
opposite  the  mouth  of  Massaponax  river.  It  was  settled 
that  the  river  should  be  spanned  at  three  points, — the 
first  near  the  old  county  bridge,  the  second  at  the  lower 
end  of  the  city,  and  the  third  about  a  mile  below.  Gen 
erals  Sumner  and  Hooker  were  to  lead  their  commands 
over  the  bridges  opposite  the  town,  and  at  the  same  time 
General  Franklin's  large  force  was  to  cross  lower  down. 

Before  daylight  on  the  morning  of  the  nth,  under  the 
depressing  influence  of  cold  and  fog,  the  engineers 
began  their  work.  The  party  below  the  town  met  with 
but  little  opposition,  and  by  eleven  o'clock  in  the  fore- 


1862.]  FREDERICKSBURG.  187 

noon  General  Franklin  reported  to  General  Burnside 
that  he  was  ready  to  cross  his  division  ;  but  the  engi 
neers  opposite  the  city  had  not  been  so  fortunate.  About 
two  thirds  of  the  work  had  been  accomplished  when  the 
fog  lifted  and  the  design  of  crossing  stood  revealed  to 
the  enemy.  It  was  speedily  made  evident  that  the 
upper  bridge  would  not  be  completed  without  a  des 
perate  struggle.  Not  ten  rods  from  the  river  stood  a 
row  of  stone  houses,  and  this  strategic  position  was 
quickly  utilized  by  the  celebrated  Mississippian  sharp 
shooters,  who  poured  forth  so  fatal  a  fire  that  it  was  like 
murder  to  keep  the  men  at  work. 

"The  bridge  must  be  completed,"  came  the  spur 
from  General  Burnside,  and  again  and  again  brave 
men  sprang  to  the  task,  only  to  fall  before  the  deadly 
rain  of  bullets.  Plainly  the  sharpshooters  must  be  dis 
lodged  if  the  structure  were  to  be  finished. 

"  Bring  all  your  guns  to  bear  upon  the  city  and  batter 
it  down."  So  ran  the  order  sent  to  the  chief  of  the  Union 
artillery,  and  the  whole  line  opposite  the  town  promptly 
responded.  Once  more,  with  the  roar  of  cannon  above 
their  heads  and  the  shrieking  and  crashing  of  shells  all 
around  them,  the  engineers  strove  to  consummate  their 
task.  The  streets  of  the  city  were  deserted,  the  houses 
were  riddled  with  shot  and  shell,  and  still,  safely  hidden 
in  the  cellars  of  the  stone  houses  along  the  river,  so  low 
down  that  the  guns  could  not  be  depressed  sufficiently 
to  shell  them  out,  the  Mississippians  keep  up  their  mur 
derous  slaughter. 

General  Burnside  himself  came  down  to  the  river, 
and  immediately  called  for  volunteers  to  cross  it  in 
boats,  drive  the  marksmen  from  the  houses,  and  hold 
the  city  until  the  bridges  could  be  finished.  It  was 


1 88  NINTH  NE  W  HAMPSHIRE.  [December , 

almost  certain  death,  yet  ten  men  sprang  to  the  call 
where  there  was  room  for  only  one  in  the  boats.  Part 
of  the  Seventh  Michigan  was  selected  to  go  first,  with 
volunteers  from  the  Fiftieth  New  York  as  oarsmen,  while 
the  Nineteenth  and  Twentieth  Massachusetts  impatiently 
awaited  their  turn. 

Now  the  men  are  in  the  boats,  the  Stars  and  Stripes 
floating  proudly  in  the  van.  The  shore  has  been  gained, 
but  at  what  fearful  cost !  Only  a  handful  are  left,  but 
they  rush  up  the  bank,  through  the  streets,  drive  out  the 
sharpshooters  from  their  hiding-places,  and  take  more 
prisoners  than  they  themselves  number. 

"They  formed  in  line  of  battle  ; 
Not  a  man  was  out  of  place. 
Then  with  levelled  steel  they  hurled  them 
Straight  in  the  Rebels1  face. 

"  O  help  me,  help  me,  comrade  ! 
For  tears  my  eyelids  drown, 
As  I  see  their  starry  banners 
Stream  up  the  smoking  town  ! " 

Part  of  the  Eighty-ninth  New  York  had  succeeded  in 
crossing  by  the  middle  bridge  while  the  attention  of  the 
enemy  was  diverted  to  the  party  in  the  boats,  and  ably 
supplemented  their  efforts  after  they  reached  the  shore. 
The  city  was  ours,  and  by  four  o'clock  both  bridges 
were  ready.  By  the  time  night  had  settled  down, 
enough  troops  had  been  crossed  to  properly  guard  the 
city,  and  the  soldiers  bivouacked  in  the  open  streets  and 
gardens.  The  remainder  of  the  troops,  with  the  excep 
tion  of  General  Hooker's  division,  which  was  retained 
as  a  reserve,  crossed  on  the  I2th,  General  Sumner's 
division  occupying  the  city  that  night  and  connecting 


1862.]  FREDERICKSBURG.  189 

with  General  Franklin's  division,  which  was  stationed 
on  the  wide  plain  commanding  the  old  Richmond  road. 

During  all  this  time  General  Lee  had  been  putting  the 
finishing  touches  to  his  preparations  for  defence.  He 
had  ordered  up  General  Jackson  from  Port  Royal,  who 
now  held  the  right  of  the  Confederate  line,  with  Long- 
street's  corps  supporting  the  left  and  resting  on  the  river. 
Thus  he  awaited  the  attack. 

The  following  description  of  the  field  is  by  an  eye-wit 
ness  of  the  scene  : 

44  Such  is  the  field, — a  smooth  plain,  a  mile  wide  and 
two  miles  long,  around  Bernard's,  reaching  up  to  the 
town.  Bernard's  farm  is  cut  across  by  the  Port  Royal 
road,  the  old  road  to  Richmond,  and  by  the  railroad. 
The  Port  Royal  road  is  bordered  by  cedars,  thick-set 
hedges,  and  a  deep  .ditch.  There  are  fences  dividing 
the  intervale  into  fields.  Deep  Run  is  fringed  with 
alders.  Marye's  hill  is  quite  steep.  The  Rebel  cannon 
sweep  all  the  plain,  the  field  at  the  base  of  Marye's,  and 
the  town  itself.  The  Rebel  troops  have  the  protection  of 
the  sunken  road,  of  the  rifle-pits  along  the  crests  of  the 
hills.  They  are  sheltered  by  woods,  by  ravines,  by  the 
hedges  and  fences,  but  Burnside  has  no  cover  for  his 
troops.  They  must  march  out  upon  the  plain,  charge  up 
the  hill-sides,  and  receive  the  fire  of  a  sheltered  foe." 

General  Burnside's  plan,  in  brief,  was  to  employ 
Franklin's  division  in  seizing  the  railroad  at  Hamilton's 
Crossing,  and  General  Sumner  was  to  dislodge  Long- 
street,  if  possible,  from  his  stronghold  on  Marye's  hill. 
These  two  important  points  gained,  he  hoped  to  compel 
the  enemy  to  evacuate  the  ridge  between.  General 
Hooker's  division  was  to  remain  in  reserve  on  the  oppo 
site  side  of  the  river.  This  was  the  substance  of  the 


NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [December, 

orders  issued  from  head-quarters  on  the  morning  of  the 
i3th. 

When  the  day  dawned,  friend  and  foe  were  alike  hid 
den  from  sight  by  the  dense  fog  that  floated  up  from  the 
river.  Early  in  the  morning  a  mail  arrived,  and  was  dis 
tributed.  How  eagerly  were  the  letters  read  !  How  the 
messages  of  love  and  trust  animated  the  hearts  and 
nerved  the  arms  of  men  who  in  a  few  short  hours 
were  fated  to  fall  in  defence  of  home  and  country.  Sud 
denly  the  fog  lifted,  and  the  field  became  one  vast  thea 
tre  of  action.  General  Meade,  of  Franklin's  division, 
opened  the  advance  on  the  left,  and  was  met  by  a  heavy 
and  enfilading  fire  from  a  battery  posted  so  as  to  rake 
his  left  and  rear.  So  sudden  and  vigorous  was  his  attack 
that  he  nearly  reached  the  second  line  of  the  enemy,  and 
as  it  was,  over  three  hundred  prisoners  were  captured 
and  taken  to  the  rear.  But  no  reserves  were  ordered  up 
as  support  to  this  gallant  charge,  and  after  another  hour's 
unavailing  struggle  against  Jackson's  entire  corps  the 
plucky  leader  was  forced  back,  the  support  coming  up  just 
in  time  to  enable  the  now  exhausted  troops  to  retire 
with  comparative  safety.  This  practically  ended  the 
attack  on  the  left. 

While  we  have  been  watching  the  contest  on  the  left, 
how  has  the  battle  gone  with  the  forces  on  the  right? 
Ah,  truly,  life  has  not  been  held  dear  here,  for  the  dead 
lie  thick  at  the  foot  of  Marye's  hill  ! 

The  advance  for  the  attack  on  the  heights  was  across 
the  open  plain  in  the  rear  of  the  town,  and  was  made  by 
Sturgis's  division  of  the  Ninth  corps  and  Hancock's  and 
French's  divisions  of  the  Second.  They  are  marching 
with  closed  ranks  and  reserving  their  fire,  while  every 
gun  in  the  Confederate  battery  thunders  forth  its  defiance 


i862.]  FREDERICKSBURG.  191 

in  hurtling  shot  and  shell.  Now  they  are  Hearing  the 
hill,  and,  almost  together,  from  the  sunken  road,  from 
the  rifle-pits  halfway  up  the  hill,  and  yet  again  from  the 
crest,  come  sheets  of  withering  flame,  and  hundreds  go 
down  before  them  like  wheat  under  the  reaper's  sickle. 
Yet  on  they  rush;  the  dead  and  dying  are  left  behind; 
Sturgis's  division  reach  a  sheltered  hollow  at  the  foot  of 
the  hill :  but  the  other  divisions  can  find  no  cover,  and 
so  fierce  is  the  fire  from  behind  that  fatal  stone  wall  that, 
brave  men  as  they  are,  only  retreat  can  save  them  from 
utter  annihilation. 

The  movement  has  been  made  so  rapidly  that  scarcely 
fifteen  minutes  has  passed  before  it  is  all  over,  and 
Sturgis's  division  is  holding  the  field  alone.  There  are 
three  New  Hampshire  regiments  in  this  division, — the 
Sixth,  Ninth,  and  Eleventh — and  the  Granite  state  may 
well  be  proud  of  the  part  they  bore  in  that  terrible  day. 
The  battery  on  the  crest  does  its  best  to  drive  them  out. 
Shot  and  shell  furrow  the  ground,  but  all  to  no  purpose. 
All  the  long,  weary  afternoon  do  the  men  hold  their 
position,  and  as  long  as  they  can  see  pick  off  the  gun 
ners  with  aggravating  persistency. 

A  second  attempt  is  made  to  carry  the  hill,  by  Penn 
sylvania  troops,  backed  up  by  Morell's  division  of 
veterans.  They,  too,  advance  bravely,  only  to  meet 
with  the  same  fate  as  the  previous  divisions ;  and,  again 
like  them,  are  compelled  to  retreat. 

Night  is  coming  on,  and  General  Franklin  has  given 
up  any  further  attempt  on  the  left,  but  General  Sumner 
begs  to  be  allowed  to  lead  in  one  more  grand  charge 
from  the  right.  He  is  a  thoroughly  brave  man,  one 
who  would  have  fallen  rejoicing  on  the  field  of  battle 
could  he  have  been  allowed  to  avenge  the  fearful 


192  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [December, 

slaughter  of  that  day.  It  is  decided  to  make  the 
attempt,  though  General  Burnside  refuses  to  allow  so 
valued  an  officer  as  General  Sumner  to  expose  himself 
on  the  field.  The  Fifth  corps,  which  until  now  has 
been  held  in  reserve,  is  ordered  up,  and  with  a  portion 
of  the  Sixth,  and  led  by  General  Hooker  himself,  makes 
ready  for  the  final  charge. 

The  sun  is  sinking  behind  the  hills  as  they  cross  the 
plain,  and  just  as  the  advance  is  nearing  the  foot  of  the 
hill  Longstreet's  reserves  come  sweeping  down.  Once 
more  the  cannon  rain  shot  and  shell  on  the  devoted  host 
— the  hills,  the  valleys,  all  the  earth  seems  one  vast 
sheet  of  flame  under  the  shock  of  that  last,  fierce  onset ; 
but  the  murderous  fire  has  done  its  work  only  too  well, 
and  the  plain  is  black  with  the  bodies  of  the  slain  as  the 
line  first  wavers  and  then  moves  slowly  to  the  rear. 
The  third  and  last  attempt  has  failed,  and  night  merci 
fully  draws  her  mantle  of  darkness  over  the  horrible 
scenes  below. 


Eighteen  hundred  and  sixty-two, — 
That  is  the  number  of  wounded  men 

Who,  if  the  telegraph's  tale  be  true, 

Reached  Washington  city  but  yestere'en. 

And  it  is  but  a  handful,  the  telegrams  add, 
To  those  who  are  coining  by  boats  and  cars ; 

Weary  and  wounded,  dying  and  sad ; 
Covered — but  only  in  front — with  scars. 

Some  are  wounded  by  Mini£  shot, 
Others  are  torn  by  the  hissing  shell, 

As  it  burst  upon  them  as  fierce  and  as  hot 
As  a  demon  spawned  in  a  traitor's  hell. 


THOMAS  J.  PRIEST,  Co.  H. 


JOSIAH  SCOTT,  Co.  H. 


BYRON  D.  LEIGHTON,  Co.  I.  CORP.  EDWIN  H.  STREETER,  Co.  I. 


t862.j  FREDERICKSBURG, 

"  Some  are  pierced  by  the  sharp  bayonet, 

Others  are  crushed  by  the  horse's  hoof; 
Or  fell  'neath  the  shower  of  iron  which  met 
Them  as  hail  beats  down  on  an  open  roof. 

"  Shall  I  tell  what  they  did  to  meet  this  fate? 

Why  was  this  living  death  their  doom? 
Why  did  they  fall  to  this  piteous  state 

'Neath  the  rifle's  crack  and  the  cannon's  boom  ? 

"Orders  arrived,  and  the  river  they  crossed ; 

Built  the  bridge  in  the  enemy's  face ; 
No  matter  how  many  were  shot  and  lost, 

And  floated — sad  corpses- — away  from  the  place. 

"Orders  they  heard,  and  they  scaled  the  height, 

Climbing  right  into  the  jaws  of  death  ; 
Each  man  grasping  his  rifle-piece  tight, 
Scarcely  pausing  to  draw  his  breath. 

"Sudden  flashed  on  them  a  sheet  of  flame 

From  hidden  fence  and  from  ambuscade ; 
A  moment  more — (they  say  this  is  fame) — 
A  thousand  men  on  the  grass  were  laid. 

"  Fifteen  thousand  in  wounded  and  killed, 

At  least,  is  «  our  loss,'  the  newspapers  say. 
This  loss  to  our  army  must  surely  be  filled 
Against  another  great  battle-day. 

"  «  Our  loss  ! '  Whose  loss  ?  Let  demagogues  say 

That  the  cabinet,  president, — all  are  in  wrong : 
What  do  the  orphans  and  widows  pray  ? 
What  is  the  burden  of  their  sad  song? 

"  'T  is  their  loss  !     But  the  tears  in  their  weeping  eyes 

Hide  cabinet,  president,  generals, — all ; 

And  they  only  can  see  a  cold  form  that  lies 

On  the  hill-side  slope,  by  that  fatal  wall. 

XIII 


194  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [December, 

"They  cannot  discriminate  men  or  means, — 

They  only  demand  that  this  blundering  cease. 
In  their  frenzied  grief  they  would  end  such  scenes, 
Though  that  end  be — even  with  traitors — peace. 

"  Is  thy  face  from  thy  people  turned,  O  God? 

Is  thy  arm  for  the  nation  no  longer  strong? 
We  cry  from  our  homes — the  dead  cry  from  the  sod — 
How  long,  O  our  righteous  God  !  how  long? 


The  following  is  the  official  recognition  of  the  merito 
rious  services  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac,  as  tendered 
by  the  president  in  behalf  of  the  people  : 

EXECUTIVE  MANSION. 
WASHINGTON,  December  22,  1862. 
To  THE  ARMY  OF  THE  POTOMAC: 

I  have  just  read  your  commanding  general's  preliminary  report  of 
the  Battle  of  Fredericksburg.  Although  you  were  not  successful,  the 
attempt  was  not  an  error,  nor  the  failure  other  than  an  accident.  The 
courage  with  which  you,  in  an  open  field,  maintained  the  contest  against 
an  entrenched  foe,  and  the  consummate  skill  and  success  with  which 
you  crossed  and  recrossed  the  river,  in  face  of  the  enemy,  show  that 
you  possess  all  the  qualities  of  a  great  army,  which  will  yet  give  victory 
to  the  cause  of  the  country  and  of  popular  government.  Condoling 
with  the  mourners  for  the  dead,  and  sympathizing  with  the  severely 
wounded,  I  congratulate  you  that  the  number  of  both  is  comparatively 
so  small. 

I  tender  to  you,  officers  and  soldiers,  the  thanks  of  the  nation. 

ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

It  will  be  remembered  that  the  Ninth  New  Hampshire 
had  been  assigned  to  Nagle's  brigade  in  Sturgis's  divis 
ion  of  the  Ninth  corps,  which  formed  a  part  of  the  grand 
division  under  that  gallant  old  hero,  General  Sumner  ;  and 
as  we  review  the  movements  of  the  army  from  the  time 
they  left  Pleasant  Valley — their  perilous  journey  through 


1 862.  ]  FREDERICKSB  UR  G.  1 95 

the  valley  of  the  Blue  Ridge,  the  forced  march  across 
the  country  to  Falmouth,  and  the  history  of  the  futile,  yet 
most  courageous,  assault  on  the  heights  at  Fredericks- 
burg,  we  find  the  Ninth  corps  always  in  the  advance, 
never  shrinking  nor  faltering  in  the  presence  of  death, 
but  ever  presenting  a  bold  front  to  the  foe ;  and  realiz 
ing  that  only  tried  and  true  men  can  constitute  such  a 
command  as  this,  we  feel  sure  that  the  Ninth  New 
Hampshire  fully  deserves  the  proud  record  it  has  thus 
far  made. 

Only  those  who  have  taken  part  in  a  battle  can  under 
stand  the  difficulties  encountered  in  presenting  a  truthful 
picture  of  the  part  borne  by  particular  individuals  or 
companies  in  a  general  assault,  and  how  imperfect  at 
best  must  be  the  result.  It  is  easy  to  describe  the  move 
ments  of  great  bodies,  their  advance  and  retreat;  but  in 
a  decisive  action,  where  men's  lives  hang  by  a  hair, 
there  is  little  time  for  observation.  The  deafening  can 
non  dulls  the  ears,  smoke  blinds  the  eyes ;  one  knows 
that  men  are  falling  about  him,  some  in  the  peaceful 
embrace  of  a  merciful  death,  and  others  groaning  in 
agony  beneath  the  trampling  feet  of  horses  and  men, 
and  yet  scarcely  realizes,  even  then,  that  any  moment  a 
similar  fate  may  befall  him.  So  it  is  when  the  smoke 
has  cleared  away,  and  he  tries  to  depict  to  others  what 
he  himself  has  seen  and  heard.  A  thousand  incidents 
present  themselves  before  him,  and  then,  as  never 
before,  he  comprehends  how  feeble  are  words  to  express 
the  reality  of  what  has  occurred.  Therefore,  we  can 
not  but  feel  that  the  following  description  of  the  specific 
action  of  the  Ninth  regiment,  though  told  by  active  par 
ticipants,  is  but  a  tithe  of  what  might  be  written  as  to 
what  befell  them  on  that  bloody  field. 


196  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [December, 

"  We  crossed  the  pontoon  bridge  Friday  morning, 
December  12,  at  sunrise,  and  remained  all  day  in  the 
streets  of  Fredericksburg.  That  night  we  obtained  a 
good  night's  rest,  sleeping  upon  our  arms  in  the  streets. 
Heavy  firing  commenced  early  Saturday  morning  ;  we 
were  immediately  placed  under  arms,  and  kept  in  that 
state  of  suspense  which  none  but  a  soldier  can  appre 
ciate,  moving  now  this  way  a  little,  now  that,  and  every 
moment  expecting  to  be  'ordered  in,'  till  about  i  p.  m., 
when  our'brigade  was  ordered  in,  not  as  a  whole,  but  by 
regiments. 

"  Our  regiment  moved  to  the  rear  and  left  of  the  city, 
and  swinging  to  the  right,  advanced  along  the  open  field 
towards  the  railroad.  Having  crossed  the  railroad  we 
soon  came  under  a  galling  artillery  fire.  We  now  took 
a  double-quick,  and  the  fire  increased  as  we  neared  the 
deep  cut,  through  which  is  the  carriage  road  running 
west  from  the  city. 

"  The  sides  of  this  cut  were  perhaps  fifteen  feet  high, 
and  nearly  perpendicular.  As  we  were  rushing  into  this, 
Lieutenant  Lewis  was  hit  by  a  piece  of  bursting  shell 
just  as  he  had  gained  the  first  embankment,  and  fell 
headlong  to  the  bottom,  a  corpse. 

"Two  pieces  of  rebel  artillery  had  perfect  range  of 
this  cut,  and  poured  through  it  an  incessant  storm  of 
shell  and  canister.  It  was  with  the  greatest  difficulty 
that  the  men,  under  their  heavy  burdens,  could  ascend 
the  opposite  bank,  yet  to  remain  there  for  any  time  was 
annihilation.  There  was  no  retreat ;  to  remain  there  was 
death,  and  to  go  forward — when  once  we  had  gained  the 
top  of  the  embankment  there  was  the  same  murderous 
fire  of  artillery,  combined  with  that  of  infantry. 

"Many  of  our  officers  behaved  with  great  courage, 


LIEUT.  C.  D.  COPP,  Co.  C. 


CAPT.  C.  D.  COPP,  Co.  C. 


PHINEAS  R.  HUNTOON,  Co.  C.  LIEUT.  JOHN  E.  MASON,  Co.  D. 


i862.]  FREDERICKSBURG.  Ip7 

some  of  them  leaping  up  the  embankment  and  then  pull 
ing  up  their  men.  The  ascent  was  much  more  difficult 
on  the  left  than  on  the  right,  and  the  loss  in  the  left 
companies  was  very  heavy.  Then,  having  gained  the 
opposite  embankment,  we  had  entered  what  has  been 
appropriately  termed  the  '  slaughter  pen.' 

"To  reach  the  front  we  now  had  to  swing  to  the  left 
and  advance  across  an  open  field,  every  foot  of  which 
was  exposed  to  the  fire  of  the  rebel  artillery,  and  upon 
which  rained  a  perfect  shower  of  bullets.  This  plain 
was  already  thickly  strewn  with  the  dead  and  dying  of 
other  regiments,  and  at  every  step,  though  advancing  at 
the  top  of  our  speed,  wide  gaps  were  made  in  our  ranks 
by  cannon  shot  and  shell,  and  many  sank  down  pierced 
by  the  deadly  Minie. 

"  In  crossing  fences  and  ditches  and  passing  build 
ings,  the  companies  became  somewhat  separated  from 
each  other.  The  color  bearer  was  mortally  wounded, 
and  several  of  the  color  guard  were  among  the  killed 
and  wounded.  Under  the  hottest  fire,  when  the  color 
sergeant  was  shot  and  the  well  aimed  fire  of  the  enemy 
seemed  to  threaten  annihilation,  Lieut.  C.  D.  Copp  of 
the  color  company  seized  the  National  colors  and  threw 
himself  in  advance  of  his  company,  which  position  he 
kept  until  the  front  line  was  reached.  There  the  men, 
with  those  of  other  regiments,  sheltering  themselves  as 
much  as  possible  by  knolls,  embankments,  walls,  etc., 
kept  up  a  terrific  fire  till  after  dark,  when,  our  ammuni 
tion  being  expended,  we  moved  back  into  the  city, 
replenished  our  cartridge  boxes,  and  then  returned  to 
another  portion  of  the  field,  where,  however,  we  had  no 
fighting. 

"  During  Sunday  and  Monday   we   had  no  fighting, 


1 98  NINTH  NE  W  HA  MPSHIRE.  [D ecember, 

but  on  Monday  night  were  again  ordered  to  the  front, 
where  we  remained  within  a  few  yards  of  the  rebel 
pickets  till  about  midnight,  when  we  were  moved 
stealthily  back  through  the  city,  in  whose  streets  was 
not  now  to  be  seen  a  man  of  those  thousands  who  com 
pletely  thronged  them  a  few  hours  before,  except  a  few 
companies  or  decimated  battalions  like  ourselves,  mov 
ing  stealthily  towards  the  pontoon  bridge  which  we  had 
crossed  three  days  before  in  high  expectation  of  winning 
a  glorious  victory." 

Brigadier-General  Nagle,  in  his  official  report  to  Gen 
eral  Burnside  after  the  battle,  thus  describes  the  work 
of  the  brigade  to  which  the  Ninth  New  Hampshire 
belonged  : 

HEAD-QUARTERS  FIRST  BRIGADE,  20  Div.,  QTH  ARMY  CORPS. 
NEAR  FALMOUTH,  VA.,  December  i6th,  1862. 

GENERAL  :  I  have  the  honor  to  submit  the  following  report  of  the 
part  taken  by  my  Brigade  in  the  recent  operations  against  the  enemy  : 
On  the  morning  of  Friday,  the  I2th  inst.,  in  obedience  to  your  order, 
I  crossed  the  Rappahannock,  in  the  vicinity  of  the  Lacy  House,  with 
my  Brigade,  and  took  position  under  the  shelter  on  the  opposite  side 
of  the  river.  I  remained  in  this  position  until  4  p.  m.,  when  I  moved 
my  troops  a  short  distance  down  the  first  street  running  parallel  with 
the  river,  where  we  bivouacked  for  the  night.  On  the  morning  of  the 
1 3th  we  moved  further  down  said  street,  left  in  front,  until  we  came 
up  with  the  right  of  General  Getty's  troops.  Here  I  remained  until 
12  130  o'clock  p.  m.,  when  I  by  your  order  advanced  to  the  support  of 
General  Ferrero,  who  was  already  engaged ;  I  moved  by  the  right  of 
regiments  to  the  front,  to  pass  obstacles,  until  I  got  to  the  rear  of  the 
town,  when  the  regiments  formed  in  line  of  battle. 

The  Sixth  New  Hampshire  (Colonel  Griffin)  and  the  Seventh  Rhode 
Island  (Colonel  Bliss)  advanced  to  the  front  on  the  right  of  the  rail 
road,  in  good  order,  under  a  murderous  fire  from  the  enemy's  artillery. 
The  Second  Maryland  (Colonel  Allard),  Twelfth  Rhode  Island 
(Colonel  Brown),  and  Ninth  New  Hampshire  (Lieutenant-Colonel 


i862.]  FREDERICKSBURG.  199 

Babbitt  commanding),  being  on  the  left  of  the  railroad,  were  moved  in 
order,  under  shelter  as  much  as  possible,  to  the  railroad  cut,  and  from 
there  advanced  to  the  front.  The  Forty-eighth  Pennsylvania  (Colonel 
Sigfried)  was  for  a  time  held  in  reserve  ;  at  2  :3O  p.  m.  the  Forty-eighth 
Pennsylvania  was  ordered  to  the  front.  The  men  marched  forward 
under  a  galling  fire,  like  true  veterans. 

The  whole  of  my  Brigade  remained  in  the  front,  and  did  good  ser 
vice  until  after  sixty  rounds  of  ammunition  had  been  expended,  and 
until  they  were  relieved  at  dusk  by  other  troops,  when  by  your  order 
my  command  was  withdrawn,  in  good  order,  to  the  position  occupied 
on  the  previous  night.  The  men  were  here  supplied  with  ammunition, 
and  then  bivouacked  for  the  night. 

My  Brigade  remained  in  the  same  position  until  Monday  evening, 
when  I  was  again  by  your  orders  moved  to  the  front,  with  instructions 
"to  hold  the  city  at  all  hazards.'1''  I  placed  my  troops  in  position  on 
the  left  of  the  railroad,  and  commenced  to  strengthen  and  fortify  my 
position  by  throwing  up  intrenchments,  and  digging  rifle-pits,  etc. 
At  1 1  :  30  p.  m.  by  your  order  I  withdrew  my  command  across  the  river 
to  our  former  camps.  My  Brigade  went  into  action  with  about  2,700 
men  and  my  total  loss  amounts  to  522. 

Too  much  praise  cannot  be  given  to  the  officers  and  men  of  my 
command,  especially  the  Ninth  New  Hampshire,  Forty-eighth  Penn 
sylvania,  Sixth  New  Hampshire,  and  Seventh  Rhode  Island. 
[Signed]  JAMES  NAGLE, 

Brigadier-  General. 
To 

BRIGADIER-GENERAL  STURGIS, 
Commanding  id  Div., 
9//z  Army  Corps. 


FOLLOWING  THE  CAMP. 

Five  weeks  have  slipped  away  since  General  Burnside 
assumed  command  of  the  army,  and  as  we  trace  the 
record  of  the  Ninth  New  Hampshire,  day  by  day,  through 
their  diaries  and  letters,  we  get  a  glimpse  of  life  in  the 
field  such  as  can  be  gained  in  no  other  way.  To  men 


200  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [November, 

transported  as  these  had  been  into  scenes  wholly  for 
eign  to  those  to  which  they  had  been  accustomed,  every 
thing  about  them  was  of  interest ;  and  while  the  thought 
of  the  battles  he  has  fought  may  even  now  bring  the  old- 
time  thrill  to  the  soldier's  heart,  yet  after  all,  his  memory 
lingers  most  fondly  on  his  life  in  the  camp, —  the  joys 
and  sorrows  that  made  up  his  daily  portion  :  so  once 
again  we  gather  up  the  threads  of  the  many-hued  web, 
and  weave  another  scene  in  the  tapestry  picture. 

THE  DAILY   RECORD. 
By  the  rank  and  file. 

"  Nov.  9.  We  are  having  a  rest  to-day,  and  it  is 
such  a  luxury  to  be  permitted  to  rest  on  God's  holy  day, 
tho'  the  men  are  chopping  wood  for  camp-fires,  washing 
their  clothes,  and  in  fact  doing  their  own  work  and  '  find 
ing  their  own  pleasure,'  and  we  sit  curled  up  in  our  little 
tent,  the  cold  wind  keeping  it  meanwhile  filled  with 
smoke  from  the  little  fire  in  front. 

"At  2  1-2  p.  m.  the  chaplain  invited  all  to  his  tent 
who  were  interested  in  keeping  up  religious  meetings, 
with  the  intention  of  making  arrangements  for  regular 
meetings,  but  we  were  hardly  seated  when  we  heard  the 
order  'Strike  tents  ! '  and  thus  ended  our  first  meeting. 

"  Started  about  3  1-2  o'clock.  Passed  thro'  Glen 
Mills.  Crossed  a  fork  of  the  Rappahannock.  Many  of 
the  houses  along  the  road  have  been  deserted.  The 
land  in  this  part  of  the  state  is  sandy,  and  much  of  it 
not  under  cultivation.  Marched  about  five  miles,  and 
camped  near  Amissville,  where  other  troops  had  just 
left  and  their  camp-fires  were  still  burning." 

"  Ordered  to  pack  at  3  p.  m.  ;   had  the  privilege,  how- 


1 862.]  FREDERICKSBURG.  2OI 

ever,  of  sending  out  letters.  Crossed  the  Rappahannock 
at  Glen  Mills,  passed  through  a  little  village  called 
Amissville,  and  occupied  a  little  ridge  beyond,  relieving 
a  portion  of  another  brigade.  It  seems  we  are  at  length 
hard  on  to  quite  a  body  of  the  enemy.  Are  in  fact  at 
the  front,  and  liable  to  have  a  scrimmage  with  the  rascals 
ourselves.  Saw  an  innumerable  flock  of  crows  this 
p.  m.,  flying  southward  over  our  line  of  march.  Their 
vast  column  extended  in  either  direction  as  far  as  the 
eye  could  reach,  and  occupied  hours  in  passing." 

"  Nov.  10.  Report  in  the  morning  that  we  are  to 
remain  in  camp  to-day,  and  many  of  us  went  to  washing 
our  clothes. 

"  About  pa.m.  heard  cannonading ;  at  10  1-2  ordered 
to  fall  in.  Proceeded  a  little  way  and  met  the  baggage 
train  and  cavalry  returning.  Soon  a  battery  opened 
upon  us.  Our  battery  took  position  on  a  little  eminence, 
and  replied  with  vigor.  Threw  out  skirmishers,  and 
advanced  in  line  of  battle. 

"  Colonel  Fellows  comes  along  and  says,  '  Better  eat 
some  hard-tack,  boys,  while  you  have  a  chance  ;'  and 
thereupon  we  all  went  to  crunching  the  delicious  stuff. 
Firing  ceased  towards  night,  when  we  stacked  arms  and 
made  some  coffee." 

"Many  of  the  men  are  out  of  hard-tack  and  have 
nothing  to  eat.  I  had  a  scanty  supper,  which  I  spliced 
by  parching  an  ear  of  corn  which  I  picked  up  by  the 
roadside  to-day. 

"Am  feeling  a  little  chilly  for  want  of  my  shirt,  which 
I  took  off  to  have  washed  this  morning  and  have  not 
got  dry  enough  to  put  on  yet. 

"Just  as  we  were  about  to  turn  in,  our  company  with 
one  other  was  detailed  to  go  out  in  support  of  a  battery 


202  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [November, 

about  a  mile  distant.  Did  not  pitch  any  tents.  Woke 
up  in  the  night  feeling  very  chilly  ;  went  and  lay  down 
by  a  fire,  and  in  my  eagerness  to  warm  my  back  burned 
out  the  back  of  my  overcoat." 

"  Had  the  liveliest  scramble  yet  for  rails.  A  quarter  of 
a  mile  of  fence  was  on  its  way  to  camp  in  less  than  three 
minutes  from  the  time  the  first  rail  started.  Supper 
was  the  next  thing.  'It  beats  all  nater'  how  much  we 
can  eat,  provided  we  can  get  it.  ...  Gladly  picked 
up  bits  of  crackers  which  another  regiment  had  left 
scattered  about  their  camp-ground.  About  nine  in  the 
evening  Companies  E  and  C  were  sent  to  support  a 
battery  near  where  we  were  this  morning.  Spread  my 
blanket  in  the  sheltering  crook  of  a  fence,  and  with  a 
comrade  slept  long  and  well,  though  the  ground  froze 
quite  hard." 

"  I  am  now  sitting  by  a  big  fire  of  rails.  Virginia  will 
have  any  amount  of  rails  to  split  when  the  war  is  over." 

"Nov.  ii.  "No  firing  heard  to-day  except  at  a  con 
siderable  distance.  In  the  afternoon  took  some  cloth 
from  an  old  pair  of  pants  and  put  a  new  '  breadth '  into 
the  back  of  my  overcoat  where  I  burned  it  out  last  night ; 
result — a  rare  work  of  art. 

"Many  of  the  men  had  nothing  to  eat  till  we  drew 
rations  to-day.  Received  a  mail  in  the  evening,  which 
had  the  usual  effect  upon  our  dispositions." 

"Received  a  bundle  in  the  mail  containing  a  shirt  and 
a  pair  of  gloves.  The  latter  are  particularly  acceptable, 
and  the  former,  seeing  that  now,  for  the  first  time  in  two 
months,  I  am  the  owner  of  two  shirts,  will  not  come 
amiss." 

"Nov.  12.  Reveille  at  5  a.  m.,  and  without  stopping 
for  breakfast  marched  back  to  the  place  we  left  Sunday. 


i862.]  FREDERICKSBURG.  203 

Made  a  short  stop,  and  then  'Assembly '  sounded,  and 
we  were  hurried  over  a  fearfully  rough  road  six  or  eight 
miles  farther,  to  White  Sulphur  Springs.  .  .  .  There 
was  a  good  deal  of  swearing  among  the  men  before  we 
reached  our  destination  though.  This  morning  Downs 
[Edwin  W.,  Company  E],  who  has  been  poorly  for 
some  time  and  was  straggling  along  behind,  was  cap 
tured  by  the  Johnnies,  who  had  followed  us  pretty  close 
as  far  as  the  river,  together  with  the  big  coffee-pot  and 
all  of  the  spoons  of  the  captain's  mess,  which  he  had 
been  commissioned  to  carry." 

"Joined  the  regiment  and  moved  back  to  the  ground 
we  left  Sunday  and  camped.  Went  to  the  brook  and 
washed  from  head  to  foot,  and  then  went  to  a  corn-field 
to  hunt  for  stray  '  nubbins  '  of  corn.  By  diligent  search 
I  had  found  a  few,  when  I  perceived  the  regiment  fall 
ing  in. 

"  Our  cooks  had  drawn  a  few  beans,  and  had  just  got 
them  to  stewing  when  the  order  to  march  came.  We 
ate  them  half  raw,  and  started  with  a  little  raw  corn  in 
our  haversacks.  Made  a  hasty  march  of  about  eight 
miles  and  camped  near  White  Sulphur  Springs.  Made 
some  coffee,  and  Barber  and  I  used  the  last  of  a  little 
Indian  meal  which  we  have  been  using  very  parsimoni 
ously  to  make  some  gruel,  parched  and  ate  some  corn, 
and  turned  in,  thankful  for  a  '  good  supper.'  ' 

"I  learned  to-day  what  it  was  to  be  hungry.  So 
much  so  that  I  was  compelled  to  eat  raw  pork." 

The  reason  of  this  scarcity  was  because  the  division's 
supply  train  had  been  captured.  The  two  armies  were 
hovering  very  near  each  other  and  skirmishes  were  fre 
quent.  One  stormy  evening,  the  march  being  delayed, 
the  train  was  waiting  in  the  road  for  orders  as  to  time 


204  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [November, 

and  place  for  packing.  A  Confederate  officer  disguised 
in  a  Union  uniform  rode  up  to  the  officers  in  charge  of 
the  train,  saying,  "  General  So-and-so  directs  that  you 
pack  your  train  one  side  here,  and  if  you  will  follow  me, 
I  will  show  you  where."  The  train  was  at  once  moved 
into  a  field  near  by,  but  no  sooner  was  in  place  than  a 
line  of  Johnnies  was  around  it  and  it  was  taken  away  to 
replenish  their  larders.  A  good  "haul"  for  them,  but 
a  sore  one  for  the  hungry  men  whose  stomachs  went 
empty  for  a  number  of  days. 

"  Nov.  13. — Orders  came  at  one  o'clock  of  the  nth 
to  be  ready  to  march  at  five,  and  the  baggage  train  at 
three,  so  as  to  get  ahead,  as  it  was  found  that  the  rebels 
had  nearly  surrounded  us  and  were  trying  to  cut  us  off. 

"We  marched  back  five  miles  to  our  old  camp 
ground,  and  expected  to  remain  there  through  the  day, 
but  did  not  but  three  hours.  The  tents  were  nearly  all 
pitched,  and  the  beans  (which  we  had  this  morning) 

were  about  half  cooked,  and  I  got  a  d g  from  the 

teamster  for  insisting  on  having  them  put  on,  as  they 
were  already  overloaded.  ...  I  have  just  eaten 
my  dinner,  consisting  of  coffee  and  pork  roasted  on  a 
stick,  which  I  like  better  than  fried.  .  .  .  When 
you  get  this,  make  me  some  little  bags  out  of  stout  cot 
ton  cloth,  size  about  four  inches  square,  to  put  coffee, 
tea,  sugar,  etc.,  in,  which  I  carry  in  my  haversack 
sometimes  with  three  days'  rations." 

"Exchanged  a  bit  of  pork  for  a  small  piece  of  beef 
this  morning,  which,  with  some  parched  corn,  made  us 
quite  a  palatable  tho'  not  very  bountiful  breakfast." 

"Not  a  little  growling  this  morning.  The  scarcity  of 
hard-tack  seems  to  be  accompanied  by  scarcity  of  patriot 
ism. 


i862.]  FREDERICKSBURG.  2O$ 

"Visited  ruins  of  White  Sulphur  Springs  in  the  after 
noon.  .  .  .  The  place  must  have  been  magnificent 
before  its  destruction.  The  main  building  is  four  stories 
high,  tho'  nothing  now  remains  of  it  but  its  blackened 
walls  and  massive  brick  pillars  which  surrounded  the 
main  building  and  supported  the  balconies.  Near  the 
Springs  was  a  marble  statue  of  the  '  Goddess  of  Health,' 
which  has  been  wantonly  and  disgracefully  broken  in 
pieces." 

"  Strolled  dowrn  to  the  Springs  this  afternoon.  . 
The  grounds  are  very  tastefully  laid  out,  and  were  kept 
till  recently  in  excellent  trim.  A  large  four-story  hotel 
fronted  the  highway  and  partially  hid  the  grounds. 
This  was  flanked  with  long,  low  ranges  of  hospital  build 
ings,  with  bowling-alley,  bath-houses,  etc.,  arranged 
conveniently  around.  It  is  said  to  have  been  the  roof 
beneath  which  the  ordinance  of  the  secession  of  Virginia 
was  signed.  .  .  .  When  you  write  again,  send  me  a 
small  box  of  unguentum,  as  I  must  have  something  to 
rout  the  lice.  They  will  be  carrying  me  off  yet  unless  I 
take  some  desperate  measures  with  them. 
Do  n't  worry  about  our  clothing,  as  we  are  well  supplied." 

"Since  writing  you  on  Sunday  we  have  marched  and 
countermarched  more  than  twenty-five  miles,  but  are 
now  distant  from  our  camp  of  Sunday  morning  only 
about  six  miles. 

"  On  Sunday  morning  we  left  camp  expecting  a  fight, 
as  Pleasonton's  cavalry  had  been  skirmishing  all  the 
morning.  We  went  quite  to  their  pickets  (the  rebels'), 
and  formed  line  of  battle  and  advanced  over  ground  lately 
left  by  the  enemy.  We  did  not  come  up  with  them, 
however,  though  our  cavalry  had  some  smart  firing  with 
them  and  drove  them  back.  We  slept  on  the  field  that 


206  NINTH  NE  W  HAMPSHIRE.  [November, 

night,  and  the  next  day  kept  our  ground.  We  have 
since  changed  to  this  locality,  where  we  may  be  attacked 
at  any  time. 

"You  may  not  be  aware  of  the  existence  of  the  White 
Sulphur  Springs  hotel,  which  is  now  quite  near  our 
camp.  It  was  once  a  place  of  noted  resort  for  invalids 
and  tourists  in  this  region.  The  hotels — large  brick 
edifices  of  splendid  proportions  and  style — were  destroyed 
by  the  rebels  just  before  Pope's  passage  through  this 
region  last  summer,  and  are  now  a  mass  of  ruins,  but 
the  grounds  and  lawns  and  fountains  are  all  left,  show 
ing  what  was  once  a  noble  establishment.  The  spring 
is  strongly  sulphur,  and  the  water  tastes  like  as  if  gun 
powder  were  dissolved  in  it.  The  furniture  of  many  of 
the  bath-houses  and  dwellings  designed  for  families  is 
still  left.  You  will  recollect  this  place  as  that  where  Mr. 
John  Goss  and  family  were  engaged  hotel-keeping  before 
going  into  the  National  at  Washington." 

"Nov.  14. — For  a  wonder,  remained  in  camp,  on  the 
same  ground  we  occupied  yesterday.  .  .  .  Another 
mail  to-day." 

"  Last  night  one  of  the  Company  H  men  died  in  his 
tent.  .  .  .  We  are  well  supplied  with  ambulances, 
and  yet  sick  men  are  compelled  to  march  at  the  point  of 
the  bayonet.  I  pray  to  be  delivered  from  sickness  even 
above  death  itself  while  I  am  in  the  army.'7 

"  Nov.  15. — Broke  camp  at  daybreak.  Were  hindered 
a  long  time  in  crossing  a  creek.  About  9:12  a.  m.  a  rebel 
battery  opened  briskly  and  was  well  answered  by  ours. 

"Their  shells  seemed  to  be  aimed  principally  at  our 
baggage  train,  which  was  hurried  to  a  less  exposed 
position  as  fast  as  the  terrified  muleteers  could  urge 
their  more  fearless  quadrupeds,  who  would  be  sure  to 


i862.]  FREDERICKSBURG.  2OJ 

exhibit  their  total  depravity  by  balking  in  the  most 
unexpected  places,  and  breaking  out  wagon  poles 
wherever  shell  flew  the  thickest.  For  a  time  everything 
indicated  an  engagement,  but  the  rebel  battery  at  length 
withdrew  from  our  front  and  we  marched  till  dark." 

"  (Noon.)  We  are  at  rest  a  few  miles  from  White 
Sulphur  Springs,  having  left  there  early  this  morning. 
Our  baggage  train  was  shelled  while  leaving 
by  the  'rebs,'  who  were  near  by,  and  came  near  being 
taken  prisoners.  One  teamster  was  wounded  and  wagon 
demolished  by  a  shell." 

"Went  into  camp  at  Fayettesville,  on  the  same  field 
with  General  Doubleday's  division.  Weather  fine." 

"  Nov.  16. — Our  i  Sabbath  day's  journeys  '  differ  from 
those  of  the  old  Jews  in  that  they  are  generally  longer 
than  the  journeys  of  other  days. 

"  Made  a  severe  march  thro'  one  of  the  most  desolate 
and  barren  regions  I  have  yet  seen.  Came  in  sight  of  a 
railroad  for  the  first  time  in  two  weeks.  Camped  about 
three  miles  from  Warrenton  Junction. 

"  No  bread  in  camp,  but  most  of  the  men  have  man 
aged  to  '  abduct '  some  corn  from  the  horse  and  mule 
rations,  and  this,  parched,  serves  as  hard-tack." 

"  On  guard  at  night,  which  was  very  dark  and 
threatened  to  be  rainy.  Did  not  have  a  very  hard 
time,  as  my  post  was  at  general  head-quarters,  beside  a 
good  fire." 

"Nov.  17. — A  dark  and  gloomy  day.  Being  called 
into  line  at  an  early  hour,  Colonel  Fellows  took  his  ac 
customed  place  in  front  for  the  last  time,  and  after  read 
ing  his  resignation  and  the  order  accepting  the  same, 
made  a  brief  but  pointed  farewell  address  to  the  officers 
and  soldiers  of  the  Ninth  New  Hampshire  volunteers. 


208  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [November, 

".  .  .  Colonel  Fellows  combines  in  himself  the  rare 
qualifications  of  mildness  and  sternness,  bravery  and 
prudence,  and  none  of  the  officers  present  can  now  fill 
his  place.  We  shall  now  long  for  the  return  of  Lieuten 
ant-Colonel  Titus.  Our  quartermaster  also  resigned, 
and  returned  home  with  Colonel  Fellows. 

"  The  country  seems  to  be  full  of  troops.  The  infan 
try  are  obliged  to  take  the  fields  and  give  the  roads  to 
the  supply  trains  and  artillery.  This  renders  the  march 
ing  very  hard." 

"  Nearly  all  the  forenoon  was  occupied  in  issuing 
rations.  The  sight  of  these  has  revived  the  boys'  droop 
ing  spirits  wonderfully.  In  the  afternoon  took  up  line 
of  march  for  Fredericksburg ;  accomplished  about  ten 
miles.  The  whole  corps  was  in  motion  at  the  same 
time,  and  in  as  compact  a  body  as  possible,  one  division, 
with  the  artillery  and  baggage,  keeping  the  road,  with 
one  of  the  other  two  on  either  side.  It  was  a  grand  and 
imposing  spectacle,  and  one  not  often  seen — 25,000  men, 
with  miles  of  trains  in  compact  order,  tramping  through 
fields  and  forests.  I  did  n't  wonder  much  at  the  excla 
mation  of  an  old  lady  who  stood  in  the  doorway  of  her 
cabin  and  watched  us  as  we  passed, — '  Dear  suz  !  I 
did  n't  s'pose  there  wuz  so  many  folkses  in  the  world!' 
.  Went  into  camp  at  five  o'clock." 

"  Nov.  18. — Routed  at  half-past  three  o'clock  and 
started  at  daybreak.  Camped  about  half-past  one  in 
the  afternoon,  eight  miles  from  Fredericksburg." 

"Our  whole  corps  on  one  field.  Starting  at  day 
light,  we  had  marched  some  twelve  or  fourteen  miles 
by  one  o'clock,  when,  well  tired  out,  we  encamped,  and 
enjoyed  not  a  little  the  chance  for  rest.  .  .  .  The 
weather  has  been  warm,  foggy,  and  more  or  less  rainy 
for  two  or  three  days  past." 


LIEUT.  S.  HORACE  PERRY,  Co.  G. 


1 862.]  FREDERICKSBURG. 

"  Nov.  19. — Foggy,  with  some  rain.  Travelling  very 
slippery.  Reached  Falmouth,  opposite  Fredericksburg, 
at  i  p.  m.  Saw  this  sign  on  one  of  the  groceries : 
*  Good  chuing  tobacco  for  sale  here.' 

"  2  130  p.  m. — Are  now  drawn  out  on  a  large  plain  and 
ordered  to  rest  on  our  arms,  as  our  artillery  is  expected 
soon  to  open  on  the  town.  .  .  .  Our  batteries  are  so 
planted  that  it  seems  they  could  destroy  the  place  in  an 
hour.  At  dark  all  is  quiet  and  have  pitched  our  tents. 
Went  to  the  bank  of  the  river  and  took  a  look  at  the 
city  opposite.  It  is  a  larger  town  than  I  had  supposed, 
and  a  fine-looking  place  for  a  Southern  city.  The  rebel 
pickets  occupy  Fredericksburg,  and  over  the  Falmouth 
bank  of  the  Rappahannock  are  within  speaking  distance, 
and  are  firing  off  blank  cartridges  of  wit  at  a  great  rate." 

"  Our  boys  have  been  down  to  the  river,  talking  with 
the  rebel  pickets  on  the  other  side,  cracking  jokes,  and 
giving  each  other  a  history  of  what  is  to  come.  They 
say  we  shall  take  Richmond  in  ashes." 

1  'Encamped  a  short  distance  back  from  the  river. 
The  city  is  still  in  the  hands  of  the  enemy.  They  have 
destroyed  the  bridges,  and  show  some  signs  of  making  a 
stand  here.  .  .  .  Hope  by  to-morrow  our  flag 
will  be  waving  triumphantly  over  the  second  city  of 
Virginia.  .  .  .  Our  guns  command  completely  the 
whole  city,  and  as  soon  as  our  pontoon  train  can  arrive 
and  bridge  the  river,  it  must  fall  into  our  hands." 

[The  following  incident  of  special  detail  is  contributed 
by  Lieut.  S.  H.  Perry,  at  that  time  sergeant  of  Com 
pany  I :] 

"The  regiment  arrived  opposite  Fredericksburg  in 
the  afternoon  of  November  19,  and  went  into  camp  on 


XIV 


2IO  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [November, 

the  bluff  in  rear  of  the  Lacy  House.  Company  I,  of 
which  I  was  a  member,  was  detailed  for  picket  duty  that 
night,  our  posts  extending  from  the  railroad  bridge  about 
halfway  to  a  ford  near  Falmouth.  As  sergeant,  I  was 
in  command  of  the  post  at  the  ferry  opposite  the  city. 

"  Next  morning,  about  seven  o'clock,  an  orderly  came 
for  the  officer  in  command  of  that  post  to  report  to 
General  Patrick,  provost  marshal-general  of  the  Army  of 
the  Potomac.  I  did  so  at  once,  and  received  from  him 
a  white  flag,  with  orders  to  go  to  the  shore,  wave  the 
flag,  and  demand  the  surrender  of  the  city  of  Fredericks- 
burg  in  his  name.  Carrying  out  these  instructions,  I 
received  a  reply  stating  that  the  one  in  command  would 
meet  the  general,  and  agree  upon  terms  if  possible.  This 
statement  proved  to  be  only  a  ruse,  however,  in  order 
that  more  time  might  be  gained  for  the  opposing  army 
to  get  into  position." 

"  Nov.  20. — Rained  fearfully  the  latter  part  of  the 
night,  and  before  morning  most  of  the  tents  were  com 
pletely  flooded.  .  .  .  There  is  no  wood  within  a 
long  distance  of  camp,  many  of  the  men  are  completely 
drenched,  and  altogether  it  is  a  cheerless  time. 

"At  nine  and  a  half  a.  m.  one  of  our  cannon  opened 
on  a  train  of  cars  which  the  rebs  undertook  to  move  from 
Fredericksburg.  At  ten  o'clock  cannonading  quite  brisk. 
.  Tremendous  rain  continued  all  day  and  night. 
As  we  had  no  wood  for  a  fire  and  no  candles,  turned  in 
at  dark  and  slept  no  less  than  twelve  hours." 

"  It  is  only  one  week  to  Thanksgiving,  and  I  should 
like  very  much  to  be  with  you,  but  I  know  I  cannot,  so 
must  make  the  best  of  it.  I  will  be  very  thankful  if  they 
will  give  me  plenty  of  hard-tack.  Much  more  so  than  I 
ever  was  for  a  roast  turkey  at  home." 


1 862.]  FREDERICKSB  URG.  211 

"  It  rained  *  right  smart,'  to  use  the  Virginia  phrase, 
last  night,  and  as  our  bivouac  is  upon  low  ground,  we 
all  came  near  taking  an  involuntary  bath.  Various 
were  the  expressions  of  feeling  as  we  were  summoned 
by  the  reveille  from  under  our  '  shelties '  into  the  liquid 
elements  without.  ...  A  few  of  us,  at  length, 
by  uniting  our  efforts,  succeeded  in  getting  up  quite  a 
respectable  fire,  and  fortifying  the  inner  man  with  a 
supply  of  hot  coffee  and  fried  hard-tack,  concluded, 
unless  we  got  drowned,  we  should  probably  live  for 
some  time  to  come.  .  .  .  The  storm  continued 
through  the  day,  which  we  spent  in  keeping  as  com 
fortable  as  we  could,  and  in  preparing,  by  getting 
brush,  for  our  beds,  etc.,  for  the  night." 

"  Nov.  21. — Left  camp  about  3  p.  m.  It  is  said  that 
several  rebel  batteries  were  discovered,  all  trained  upon 
this  plain,  densely  covered  with  our  troops,  which  was 
the  cause  of  our  hasty  move.  Moved  about  a  mile." 

"This  storm,  and  the  non-arrival  of  the  pontoons, 
seems  to  have  ended  our  advance  for  the  present.  Just 
at  night  moved  back  onto  the  hills  east  of  Falmouth,  and 
went  into  camp  near  both  wood  and  water,  and  on  dry, 
smooth  ground.  Pitched  our  tents  for  about  the  twentieth 
time  since  leaving  Pleasant  Valley,  cooked  our  supper, 
and  by  the  light  of  blazing  camp-fires  perused  the  con 
tents  of  a  huge  mail-bag  that  arrived  this  evening.  If 
we  only  had  some  of  the  cider  and  apples  you  speak  of, 
think  we  could  go  to  bed  as  jolly  as  if  we  were  at  home, 
As  it  is,  we  are  far  from  sober." 

"  Thursday  night  Company  I  went  on  picket  on  the 
edge  of  the  river,  where  we  stood  in  the  rain  and  mud 
ankle-deep  until  the  next  night.  While  there  the  bri 
gade  moved,  and  here  we  were,  not  relieved  so  as  to  get 


212  NINTH  NE  W  HA  MPSHIRE.  [November, 

into  camp  until  9  a.  m.,  without  a  dry  thread  about  us; 
we  were  glad  to  throw  ourselves  upon  the  ground  and 
sleep,  and  I  am  sure  I  never  slept  sounder ;  it  was  quite 
enough  to  take  one's  patriotism  from  him  ;  but  when  we 
got  into  camp  around  a  good  fire,  eating  our  suppers  of 
coffee  and  hard-tack,  you  might  see  a  jolly  crowd." 

"  Nov.  22. — Went  to  Falmouth  in  the  evening  with 
Burnham.  Carried  about  nine  pounds  of  'surplus' 
coffee  belonging  to  the  company,  which  we  exchanged 
for  about  fifty  pounds  of  flour,  which  we  lugged  back  to 
camp,  a  distance  of  three  miles." 

[Burnham  says, — ] 

"We  tried  what  we  thought  would  be  a  short  cut 
through  the  woods,  but  if  the  distance  was  less  the  road 
was  worse.  .  .  .  Falmouth  is  a  little,  dirty  village, 
of  perhaps  three  hundred  inhabitants  before  the  war.  It 
has  a  large  flouring-mill,  several  stores,  and  was  evi 
dently  once  the  centre  of  considerable  trade  and  busi 
ness,  but  everything  here  has  a  worn-out,  dilapidated 
appearance  now.  .  .  .  Prices  are  what  in  New 
England  would  seem  rather  exorbitant :  Flour,  twenty 
dollars  per  barrel ;  butter,  sixty  cents  per  pound  ;  sugar, 
seventy-five  cents ;  salt,  one  hundred  dollars  per  sack, 
and  so  on." 

[It  was  at  this  disheartening  stage  of  affairs  that  the 
following  congratulatory  order  was  issued  :] 

HEAD-QUARTERS,  9TH  ARMY  CORPS, 
OPPOSITE  FREDERICKSBURG,  VA.,  November  22d,  1862. 
GENERAL  ORDERS 

No.  13. 

The  Brigadier-General  Commanding  congratulates  the  troops  of 
the  9th  Corps  on  the  cheerful  and  soldier-like  manner  in  which  duty 


i862.]  FREDERICKSBURG.  213 

has  been  performed  and  hardships  endured,  during  the  last  month. 
Night  marches,  short  rations,  exposure  to  stormy  November  weather, 
with  its  rains  and  snows,  while  moving  in  the  advance,  or  with  the 
enemy  on  our  flanks  for  several  weeks,  all  have  been  borne  nobly. 
While  animated  by  such  a  spirit  troops  are  equal  to  any  emergency, 
and  it  is  with  confidence  that  we  face  the  dangers  and  trials  of 
the  future.  In  view  of  the  coming  operations,  the  Brigadier-General 
Commanding  directs  the  attention  of  the  officers  particularly  to  a 
few  points  of  military  importance. 

1 .  Outpost  duty  requires  all  the  intelligence  and  skill  we  can  com 
mand,  in  order  to  secure  the  rest  and  quiet  of  the  camp,  and  to  pre 
vent   surprises.     The   Army    Regulations    on   this    subject  should   be 
studied  from  paragraph  602  to  642,  and  pickets  should  be  posted  in 
such  a  manner  as  to  sustain  each  other  in  case  of  attack,  and,  sup 
ported  by  the  Grand  Guards,  hold  the  enemy  in  check  long  enough 
for  the  Corps  to  form  for  battle.     Division,  Brigade,  and  Regimental 
commanders  will  look  particularly  both  to  the  instruction  of  officers, 
and  to  the  performance  of  picket  and  grand  guard  duty. 

2.  Company   and   all   other   officers    will   see  that  their   men  have 
always    two    or   three    days    rations    about   their   persons,    that   their 
cartridge   boxes  contain  forty  rounds    of  ammunition,  and  that  their 
arms  are  always  clean  and  in  good  firing  condition.     The  men  them 
selves  will  not  wait  for  their  officers  to  prompt  them  to  these  necessary 
conditions  to  their   comfort  and    safety.     New    troops  are   cautioned 
against  overloading  their  knapsacks. 

3.  On  going  into  action  let  all  remember  the  necessity  of  keeping 
cool,  closing  well  up  on  the  enemy,  and  taking  good  aim.     Cavalry 
charges  are  always  to  be  met,  not  by  random  firing,  but  by  a  well 
directed  volley,  which  will  inevitably  scatter  the  horses.     Artillery  fire 
is  more  frightful  in  sound  and  appearance  than  reality,  and  the  quicker 
the  men  move  over  the  ground  to  the  front  the  smaller  will  be  the  loss. 
One  well  aimed  bullet  does  more  execution  than  ten  that  are  not  aimed, 
so   that  four  good  shots  are  worth  more  than  forty  rounds  fired  at 
random.     Ammunition  should  not  be  wasted.     Many  battles  are  lost 
because   ammunition   gives   out   at  just  the    critical  moment.     Even 
rapid  firing  can  best  be  conducted  coolly  and  with  regular  aim. 

Finally,    fellow-soldiers,    let  us    all  remember  the    enthusiasm  and 
patriotism  which  filled  our  breasts  on  first  taking  up  arms  for  the  good 


214  NINTH  A'E  W  HAMPSHIRE.  [November, 

of  the    country ;    that  we  are  fighting   for  the  permanent  peace  and 
welfare    of  our    families,   homes,  and  firesides,  and   that  by  a  heroic 
effort  on  the  part  of  every  man,  this  campaign  may  terminate  the  war. 
By  Command  of  Brigadier-General  Willcox  : 

ROBT.    A.    HUTCHINS, 

Captain  and  Assistant  Adjutant-  General. 

"  Nov.  23. — We  are  grateful  for  another  Sabbath  of 
rest.  Great  preparations  seem  to  be  on  foot  for  a  battle. 
The  smoke  of  camp-fires  is  seen  for  miles  on  every  hand, 
and  the  beating  of  drums,  the  blowing  of  bugles  and  the 
clatter  of  cavalry,  the  rumbling  of  army  trains  and 
thundering  of  artillery  over  the  stony  roads,  keep  up  a 
perfect  din  by  day,  and  thousands  of  cold  and  hungry 
mules  with  their  hideous  braying  give  free  concerts  '  for 
the  benefit  of  the  soldiers'  every  night/' 

"  Cool,  but  not  very  uncomfortable.  Inspection  in  the 
morning,  religious  services  by  the  chaplain  in  the  after 
noon.  Text  of  sermon:  Rev.  xxii,3." 

"  Nov.  24. — Were  required  to  lay  out  our  camp  in 
regular  order  and  to  'fix  up'  our  quarters  as  comfortably 
as  possible.  Evidently  the  general's  plans  have 
changed,  but  why,  is  more  than  any  of  us  know." 

"  Nov.  25. — We  went  out  scouting  with  Charlie  Hurl- 
butt,  going  as  far  as  we  thought  it  prudent.  Saw  a 
review  of  General  Birney's  division  by  General  Hooker. 
The  troops  of  the  command,  consisting  of  eighteen  regi 
ments  and  two  six-gun  batteries,  were  drawn  up  in  three 
long  lines  of  battle,  in  the  open,  showy  order  peculiar  to 
such  occasions.  The  generals  rode  first  along  the  front, 
and  then  back  along  the  rear,  of  each  of  these,  the 
bands  playing  '  Hail  to  the  Chief.'  They  then  took  their 
position  in  front  of  the  first,  and  the  troops,  in  column  of 
companies,  passed  in  review  before  them,  the  music 


1 862 .]  FREDERICKSB  URG.  215 

playing  lively  marching  airs.  They  were  well  drilled 
and  appeared  finely,  and  as  I  listened  to  the  soul-stirring 
strains  of  the  music,  and  saw  battalion  after  battalion 
pass  with  gleaming  bayonets  and  streaming  banners,  I 
was  almost  chained  to  the  spot,  and  formed  new  and 
enlarged  ideas  of  the  magnitude  and  strength  of  our 
army." 

''Nov.  26. — The  weather  was  cold,  and  it  was  very 
muddy  this  morning,  it  having  rained  nearly  all  night. 
This  time,  however,  our  shanty  was  fortunately  in  a 
condition  to  shed  water,  and  we  slept  dry  and  comforta 
ble.  .  .  .  General  Sumner  reviewed  our  division 
this  morning." 

Nov.  27. — "  I  doubt  whether  there  were  ever  before  so 
many  vacant  chairs  or  sad  hearts  in  New  England  as 
there  are  to-day.  .  .  .  Early  in  the  afternoon  Com 
pany  E  was  detailed  for  picket.  Marching  to  the  Rap- 
pahannock  we  found  that  we  were  not  needed  on  the 
posts,  and  so  retired  to  the  vicinity  of  the  Lacy  House 
and  spent  the  night.  Finding  a  pile  of  boards,  Barber 
and  I  spread  our  blankets  on  some  of  them  and  fixed 
some  of  the  rest  into  a  kind  of  roof,  and  altogether  our 
roof  and  house  were  the  greatest  luxuries  of  the  day." 

"  I  am  having  a  Thanksgiving  even  here.  Shall  I 
tell  you  in  what  it  consists?  Feeling  a  little  unwell  this 
morning,  and  remembering  the  Latin  proverb,  '  fames 
optimum  condimentum  estj  I  ate  only  one  hard-tack  with 
a  little  coffee  for  my  breakfast.  ...  I  made  some 
flapjacks  for  my  Thanksgiving  Dinner,  and  sprinkled  on 
them  my  day's  ration  of  sugar,  and  I  had  a  delicious 
dinner.  We  are  to  have  some  boiled  beans  for  supper, 
which  will  be  a  great  luxury  for  us,  as  we  have  had  no 
variety  for  some  time,  though  we  have  had  plenty  of 
good  hard-tack  and  meat." 


2 1 6  NINTH  NE  W  HAMPSHIRE.  [November, 

"As  I  made  me  a  cup  of  coffee  this  morning  and 
scalded  my  hard-tacks  to  kill  the  worms  in  them,  I  felt 
that  there  were  those  who  had  nothing  to  eat,  and  after 
satisfying  the  inner  man  I  said,  'O  Lord,  I  thank  thee 
that  it  is  as  well  with  me  as  it  is  !' ' 

"  Rising  at  six  o'clock  from  a  bed  of  pine  boughs  and 
army  blankets,  I  made  a  rush  for  the  brook,  and  after 
several  minutes  spent  in  rubbing  and  scrubbing  con 
cluded  I  could  see,  and  would  pass  muster  here  in  this 
land  of  dirt  and  smoke.  .  .  .  Breakfast  was  the 
next  thing  on  the  programme.  Imagine,  if  you  can, 
eight  or  ten  of  us  round  a  smoky  fire  of  green  pine, 
cooking  coffee  in  our  tin  cups,  frying  pork  and  hard 
tack  on  our  tin  plates,  with  split  sticks  for  handles, 
toasting  crackers  on  the  coals — talking,  laughing,  eat 
ing,  and  wiping  from  our  tanned  and  blackened  faces 
the  tears  that  the  merciless  smoke  extorts, 
attended  the  religious  services,  which  Chaplain  Gushee 
conducted  in  a  very  interesting  manner  for  the  two  New 
Hampshire  regiments  of  our  brigade,  in  front  of  General 
Nagle's  tent.  Text :  i  Thess.  v,  18.  ,  .  .  Company 
E  and  three  or  four  others  were  detailed  for  picket  and 
ordered  to  pack  up  immediately." 

"Attended  service  in  front  of  General  Nagle's  quar 
ters,  we  playing  for  the  same.  This  serves  to  break  the 
monotony  of  camp  life,  but  the  grub  remains  the  same  as 
other  days." 

[Some  of  the  Company  E  boys  sent  to  the  old  mill 
and  bought  a  few  pounds  of  flour,  and  decided  to  have  a 
"  minute  pudding ''  for  their  Thanksgiving  dinner.  The 
flour  had  been  manufactured  evidently  from  "  grown 
wheat,"  was  very  musty,  and  evidence  was  not  want 
ing  that  the  rats  had  enjoyed  free  access  to  it.  The 


i862.]  FREDERICKSBURG.  217 

finishing  touch  was  given  by  the  cook,  who  burned 
the  pudding  in  the  making,  and  if  it  did  not  taste  of 
all  the  colors  of  the  rainbow  it  certainly  smelt  of  all 
the  odors  of  Tartarus.] 

"Nov.  28. — Yesterday  being  Thanksgiving  Day,  I 
began  a  long  letter  to  you  .  .  .  when  I  was  inter 
rupted,  and  have  not  had  time  to  resume.  .  .  .  My 
health  was  never  so  good  as  now.  I  only  feel  a  little 
reluctant  to  go  to  bed,  which  consists  of  the  ground, 
and  is  pretty  cold  to  warm  up." 

"This  morning  we  find  ourselves  on  a  beautiful  site 
of  land,  from  which  we  get  a  grand  view  of  the  city. 
I  can  see  perhaps  a  thousand  chimneys  piercing  the 
roofs  of  Fredericksburg,  yet  from  all  this  number  the 
smoke  is  seen  curling  from  only  a  very  few,  which 
tells  us  that  the  inhabitants  have  left  their  homes  and 
fled  to  the  country  ;  but  on  the  rising  ground  beyond 
the  town  may  be  seen  batteries  and  redoubts  and  long 
lines  of  breastworks  rising  one  above  the  other,  and  all 
ready  to  pour  down  upon  us  volleys  of  lead  and  iron 
whenever  we  shall  attempt  to  cross  the  river." 

"A  comfortless  creature  is  a  sick  soldier  at  this  season 
of  the  year.  If  we  attempt  to  warm  ourselves  the  smoke 
drives  in  our  faces,  while  we  freeze  one  side  and  roast  the 
other.  If  we  go  into  our  tents,  they  are  cold,  muddy,  and 
repulsive,  and  among  our  army  rations  there  is  nothing 
that  one  a  little  out  of  health  does  not  perfectly  loathe." 

"  No  guard  mount  this  morning.  Played  for  brigade 
drill,  and  afterwards  for  dress  parade." 

"  The  *  reb '  pickets  are  just  across  the  river,  perhaps 
fifty  rods  broad  at  this  point,  and  sometimes  bandy  words 
with  our  men.  Farther  back  some  of  their  fortifications 
are  in  view,  and  the  hi]ls  beyond  are  smoky  with  their 


2 1 8  NINTH  NE  W  HAMPSHIRE.  [November, 

camp-fires.  Picked  a  rosebud  from  a  well-loaded  bush 
in  the  garden  of  the  De  Lacy  House,  where  we  stayed 
last  night." 

"  Nov.  29. — Saturday  is  washing  day  with  us,  it  being 
understood  that  the  men  have  the  day  as  much  to  them 
selves  as  possible  for  this  purpose." 

"  Nov.  30. — I  would  like  to  have  you  know  that  we 
have  wet  rains  in  Virginia,  such  as  you  know  nothing 
of  in  Vermont.  ...  At  present  we  are  some  ways 
from  wood,  and  on  a  hill,  where  the  wind  strikes  us  in 
every  direction. 

"  .  .  .  Had  to  deal  out  three  days'  rations  to  the 
men,  consisting  of  hard-tack,  pork,  coffee,  and  sugar, 
also  rice  and  beans,  which  are  cooked  in  a  mess.  We 
also  have  1.1-4  pounds  of  fresh  beef  every  other  day. 
The  ration  of  pork  is  twelve  ounces  per  day,  both  of 
which  the  men  prefer  to  cook  themselves.  We  feel  the 
need  of  more  sugar,  it  being  only  fifteen  pounds  to  one 
hundred  men,  which  makes  two  large  spoonfuls  per  day 
to  a  man.  .  .  .  The  $5.00 — Vermont  or  New 
Hampshire  money — is  good  here,  but  I  could  pass  that 
$5.00  Secesh  bill  that  I  sent  you  if  I  had  it. 

"  .  .  .  I  have  sent  to  Washington  for  a  field 
sword  for  the  captain  as  a  present  from  the  company, 
costing  $13.00,  to  be  paid  for  equally  by  them.  Colonel 
Titus  will  bring  it  with  him.  ...  I  sent  a  paper 
with  a  hard-tack  enclosed  the  27th." 

"  This  morning  played  for  general  inspection,  this 
afternoon  for  services  at  the  Forty-eighth  Pennsylvania 
head-quarters." 

"Sermon  by  the  chaplain  in  the  afternoon.  Text: 
Luke  xxi,  25.  A  cold  place  to  worship,  to  sit  on  the 
wet  ground  in  a  cold  windy  day." 


i862.]  FREDERICKSBURG.  219 

44  Dec.  i. — Regular  drills  have  been  instituted,  of 
nearly  four  hours  per  day,  Saturdays  and  Sundays 
excepted." 

"  This  is  the  first  opportunity  I  have  had  to-day,  but 
as  we  draw  a  half  candle  now — last  night  being  the  first 
since  we  left  Pleasant  Valley — I  can  write  evenings  after 
a  fashion. 

"  I  was  highly  pleased  to  receive  the  stockings, 
nightcap,  and  bags,  all  safe  and  satisfactory.  The 
cap  is  made  different  from  most  others,  but  all  the 
warmer,  they  being  more  like  a  cap  without  a  visor,  a 
band  about  an  inch  wide,  with  full  crown,  and  a  knot  or 
tassel  in  the  centre.  Some  of  them  are  quite  fanciful. 

"Send  in  my  box  a  pound  of  saleratus,  or  something 
of  the  kind,  for  making  cakes  with  water,  with  directions 
for  use — and  anything  else  you  choose.  Have  the  box 
stout  and  well  nailed,  for  they  receive  rough  usage  from 
Washington  here.  Few  bottles  come  through  safe. 
One  thing  more,  is  a  pound  of  pure  leaf  tobacco.  It 
may  surprise  you,  but  I  have  used  it  all  the  time.  The 
surgeon  recommended  it  as  a  preventive  of  disease  in 
this  climate,  and  on  observation  I  am  confident  that  it  is 
the  case.  It  costs  here  from  one  to  two  dollars  per 
pound,  according  to  the  quality." 

"Dec.  2. — The  New  Hampshire  Second  arrived  here 
a  few  days  ago.  We  were  glad  to  see  them  you  may 
imagine." 

"  Dec.  3. — The  president's  message  is  the  great 
theme  of  conversation  thro'  the  army.  I  think  no  one 
uninspired  can  now  presume  to  interpret  the  signs  of 
the  times  or  tell  us  what  the  future  of  our  Republic 
may  be." 

"  There  are  no  preparations  making  for  winter  quar- 


220  NINTH  NE  W  HA MPSHIRE.  [D ecember, 

ters  yet.  Many  are  getting  sick  from  exposure,  while 
others  are  getting  as  fat  as  fools  on  hard-tack  and  pork. 
We  get  but  a  pound  of  bread  a  day.  I  can  eat  the 
whole  any  time  at  one  meal,  but  I  weigh  174  pounds, 
and  what  I  get  fat  on  I  can't  see,  unless  it  is  on  faith 
that  I  am  going  home  next  spring. 

"You  can't  imagine  howl  should  like  to  see  you; 
and  would  n't  we  walk  down  to  Mrs.  C's  and  get  some 
apples?  I  have  not  tasted  one  for  many  a  long  day, 
and  do  not  expect  to  for  many  another." 

"This  evening  serenaded  General  Sturgis.  Had  a 
splendid  treat  of  apples  and  tobacco." 

"Dec.  4. — Started  as  soon  as  light  this  morning  with 
Bugbee  to  get  some  Indian  meal.  Went  to  a  mill  about 
two  miles  distant,  where  we  obtained  each  a  haversack 
full,  which  will  furnish  us  with  many  a  dainty  '  mess.": 

"  Dec.  5. — On  duty  as  '  police,'  and  had  a  nice  time 
lugging  wood  and  water  for  the  cooks." 

"  Things  are  generally  upside  down  today,  and  we 
may  as  well  laugh  as  cry  at  circumstances.  Indeed  I 
do  n't  know  which  alternative  our  mothers  would  take  if 
they  were  to  look  in  upon  us  this  p.  m.,  for  they  would 
imagine  us  very  uncomfortable  in  the  first  place ;  and 
when  they  saw  us  using  our  Yankee  ingenuity  to  better 
our  condition,  I  am  sure  they  would  laugh  and  say,  '  I'll 
risk  you  for  a  while.'  Here  I  am,  just  commencing  this 
letter.  Do  you  ask  where?  Why,  in  my  little  fly-tent 
with  three  companions,  the  size  of  our  domicile  allowing 
us  but  two  postures, — lying  and  sitting, — the  latter  only 
when  we  take  up  with  very  humble  seats.  Accordingly, 
I  am  seated  on  my  knapsack,  clad  in  overcoat,  gloves, 
and  hat,  and  thus  able  to  keep  quite  comfortable,  except 
my  feet  are  a  little  cold  just  now.  The  snow  and  sleet 


1862.]  FREDERICKSBURG.  221 

are  pattering  down  upon  our  tent,  and  occasionally  drops 
of  water  and  snowflakes  introduce  themselves  through 
the  thin  cloth  or  some  convenient  aperture,  for  our  house 
is  well  ventilated.  I  shall  not  attempt  to  draw  the 
picture  outside  the  tent,  for  I  can  give  you  no  correct 
idea  of  Virginia  mud  on  and  about  a  camp-ground 
during  a  storm  like  the  present.  But  with  pleasant  tent- 
mates,  when  in  good  health,  I  can  pass  even  such  a  day 
with  considerable  pleasure.  This  afternoon  I  read  one 
of  Beecher's  sermons  aloud.  About  the  time  I  finished 
a  mail  was  announced,  and  out  we  rushed,  thinking 
nothing  of  mud  or  snow  till  we  had  seen  the  last  letter 
delivered.  I  received  two,  one  of  which  covered  only 
a  half  sheet,  and  I  am  using  the  other  half  in  writing 
this  letter.  We  shall  wrap  up  in  our  blankets  about 
dark,  and  lie  as  warm  as  pigs  till  daylight." 

"Dec.  6. — Cold  and  frozen,  thawing  but  very  little  in 
the  sun.  No  drills,  but  hard  work  to  keep  warm." 

"Dec.  7. — We  got  a  ration  of  potatoes  yesterday,  the 
first  we  have  tasted  for  more  than  a  month.  We  get  rice 
or  beans  almost  every  day,  so  wre  get  along  very  well 
with  eight  hard  crackers  a  day." 

"We  had  snow  day  before  yesterday,  and  it  is  cold 
here  now.  The  snow  is  some  three  inches  deep.  We 
have  little  shelter  tents  with  no  fire,  and  have  to  keep 
warm  the  best  we  can.  We  earnestly  hope  there  will  be 
a  settlement  of  this  thing  on  the  president's  recommenda 
tion.  Fighting  is  getting  unpopular,  especially  among 
the  private  soldiers." 

"  WTould  be  called  a  cold  day,  even  in  New  England. 
Between  the  smoke  and  cold  my  eyes  are  nearly  out. 

.  The  only  way  I  can  stand  it  is  to  crawl  in  my  tent, 
draw  on  overcoat  and  gloves,  and  wrap  up  in  our 
blankets." 


222  NINTH  NE  W  HAMPSHIRE.  [December, 

"Dec.  8. — A  little  warmer.  Orders  to  'fix  up'  our 
tents  as  comfortably  as  possible,  and  excusing  us  from 
duty  for  two  days  for  this  purpose." 

"This  evening  serenaded  at  head-quarters.  Colonel 
Fellows  having  resigned  on  account  of  ill  health,  Lieu 
tenant-Colonel  Titus  is  promoted  to  be  colonel,  Captain 
Babbitt  to  be  lieutenant-colonel,  Lieutenants  Hough, 
Hutchinson,  Smith,  and  others  to  be  captains,  Second 
Lieutenant  Copp  to  be  first  lieutenant,  and  others." 

"  Could  not  get  tools  yesterday  to  work  with  in  remod 
elling  our  dwelling,  but  went  at  it  early  this  morning. 

.  Cut  and  lugged  on  our  backs  logs  enough  to  stock 
ade  our  'cabin'  one  and  a  half  feet  or  so  from  the 
ground,  then  dug  down  a  few  inches,  using  the  dirt  to 
bank  up  with.  Over  this  stretched  four  out  of  our  five 
(there  being  one  to  each  man)  pieces  of  tent-cloth. 
Built  a  fire-place  with  chimney  in  farther  end,  with  sticks 
of  wood  for  bricks  and  mud  for  mortar.  Fastened  up  the 
other  end  with  our  remaining  piece  of  tent-cloth,  which 
answered  also  for  the  door,  and  spread  three  or  four 
inches  of  pine  boughs  on  the  'floor,'  which  completed 
our  improvements.  Building  a  fire  in  our  '  chimney,'  as 
we  termed  it,  and  finding  that  it  worked  splendidly,  we 
turned  in,  as  proud  and  merry  as  a  New  York  merchant 
would  be  with  a  new  brownstone  front.  Before  we  had 
finished,  however,  orders  were  received  to  be  in  readi 
ness  to  move  on  short  notice,  with  three  days'  rations  in 
haversacks." 

"  Dec.  10. — Pork  and  hard-tack  will  fat  a  soldier  if  he 
only  gets  enough  of  it.  I  weigh  180  pounds. 

"Our  regiment  was  on  picket  Monday  on  the  banks 
of  the  river.  The  rebs  were  on  the  other  side,  in  plain 
sight  and  speaking  distance,  but  during  the  whole 


1 862.]  FREDERICKSBURG.  22$ 

twenty-four    hours    neither    side    spoke    a    word    to    the 

other." 

"Expecting  an    engagement    to-morrow.     The  band 

was  ordered  to  Division  Surgeon  Cutter's  head-quarters, 
to  receive  instructions.  This  is  the  first  engagement 
since  we  were  brigaded.  Now  our  duties  are  different. 
The  Second  Brigade  band  was  also  there.  In  the  even 
ing  serenaded  Colonel  Stevens  and  Lieutenant-Colonel 
Bowers  of  the  •  Thirteenth  New  Hampshire,  they  both 
being  residents  of  Nashua." 

"  Dec.  u. — We  reported  to  Dr.  Cutter,  accompanied 
by  members  of  the  Second  Brigade  band,  and  were 
ordered  to  the  rear  of  Stafford  Heights.  Began  to  erect 
hospital  tents,  working  at  this  all  day  and  remaining 
here  through  the  night." 

"The  battle  has  opened  in  terrible  earnest.  At  6  a.  m. 
I  was  awakened  by  the  discharge  of  two  heavy  cannon, 
and  in  less  than  five  minutes  there  was  a  deafening  roar 
of  artillery  on  all  sides. 

"  Noon. — I  never  had  any  idea  of  a  terrific  cannonade 
before.  There  has  hardly  been  a  moment's  cessation 
since  the  first  gun  was  fired  this  morning,  and  much  of 
the  time  it  would  seem  as  if  the  very  elements  were  con 
vulsed  in  the  fierce  struggle. 

"Artillery  and  ammunition  trains  were  rumbling  over 
the  roads  during  the  whole  of  last  night,  and  the  infantry 
which  has  passed  this  morning  seems  almost  without 
number.  ...  If  we  succeed  in  crossing,  there  must 
be  a  bloody  battle ;  if  the  enemy  should  retreat,  a  hard 
campaign  is  before  us.  At  2  p.  m.,  marched  back  to 
camp  and  made  coffee  ;  4  p.  m.,  moved  toward  the  river 
again  ;  dark,  returned  to  camp  and  arranged  for  a  com 
fortable  night.  The  smoke  from  the  batteries  and  from 


224  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [December, 

the  burning  buildings  set  on  fire  in  the  city  by  the  shell 
from  our  cannon,  deepened  twilight  into  darkness,  save 
where  the  ruthless  flames  are  still  doing  their  work  of 
destruction  amidst  the  once  quiet  homes  of  Fredericks- 
burg." 

"  Dec.  12. — First  rations  of  whiskey  issued. 
Went  down  and  helped  deal  out  rations." 

"  Soon  after  sunrise  we  were  again  in  motion. 
Marched  this  time  directly  to  the  river,  crossed,  and 
took  position  in  the  first  street  parallel  with  the  river  and 
a  little  south  of  the  bridge.  Remained  here  till  nearly 
night,  when  we  moved  farther  south,  to  the  vicinity  of 
the  ruins  of  the  railroad  bridge,  where,  stacking  arms 
and  eating  our  supper  of  hard-tack  and  pork,  we  were 
told  to  make  the  sidewalks  our  bed,  and  sleep  if  possible." 

"The  city  presents  a  spectacle  such  as  I  never  saw 
before,  nor  do  I  wish  to  see  again.  Houses  have  been 
perforated  through  and  through  with  solid  shot,  and  torn 
in  pieces  by  bursting  shell,  while  the  streets  are  strewed 
with  furniture  of  all  descriptions.  Articles  of  clothing, 
toys,  crockery,  and  cooking  utensils,  books,  papers, 
manuscripts,  cans,  boxes,  etc.,  which  the  soldiers  use 
for  comfort  or  amusement  as  best  suits  their  inclination. 
Some  are  searching  for  valuables,  some  for  eatables,  and 
more  for  tobacco  than  for  both,  and  these  latter  are  most 
successful. 

"At  night  the  city  is  literally  filled  with  Union  sol 
diers.  Fires  were  all  extinguished  at  dark,  and  we 
bivouacked  in  the  muddy  streets.  I  procured  a  couple 
of  doors,  one  of  which  I  used  for  a  bed  and  the  other  I 
arranged  to  break  off  the  wind,  and  thus  with  one  of  my 
tent-mates  slept  soundly  and  sweetly. 

"The  streets   at  this  time   present  a   most  grotesque 


1862.  ]  FREDERICKSB  URG.  225 

appearance.  The  sidewalks  and  gutters  are  every 
where  lined  with  mattresses,  lounges,  chairs,  etc., 
which  the  soldiers,  bringing  out  for  temporary  use,  had 
not  been  careful  to  return.  Underfoot,  books  and  every 
kind  of  lighter  household  furniture  were  thickly  strown. 
Flour  had  been  found  in  large  quantities,  and  on  every 
hand,  with  their  batter  in  pitchers,  bowls,  and  all  kinds 
of  dishes,  the  boys  were  busy  cooking  fritters." 

"We  were  cutting  pine  and  cedar  twigs  for  beds  for 
the  wounded,  but  few  are  brought  in  as  yet." 

"  Dec.  13. — At  an  early  hour  Dr.  Cutter  called  for 
fourteen  men,  seven  from  each  band,  to  go  with  him  to 
the  city  to  establish  hospitals  there.  Arrived  at  day 
light,  and  began  at  once  to  clear  some  residences  of 
everything  movable,  and  in  a  short  time  had  four  ready 
for  occupancy.  We  were  then  ordered  to  clear  the  Bap 
tist  church.  While  this  was  being  done  the  armies  had 
met,  and  the  wounded  were  being  rapidly  brought  in. 
In  fact,  quicker  than  we  had  cleared  the  houses  they 
were  filled.  Then  in  the  ante-rooms  of  the  church  the 
surgeons  began  to  cut  and  slash.  .  .  .  During  the 
day  and  night  the  ambulances  were  carrying  back  the 
wounded,  some  without  being  attended  to,  on  the  south 
side,  and  all  who  possibly  could  were  ordered  to  walk." 

"  Heavy  cannonading  commenced  at  9  a.  m.,  at 
which  we  are  ordered  to  '  fall  in.'  At  10  a.  m.  we 
marched  a  half  mile  through  what  was  formerly  an  ele 
gant  street,  but  mansions  and  huts  alike  reveal  the 
effects  of  our  batteries  upon  the  town. 

"ii  a.  m. — Are  now  halting  by  the  river-side,  and 
some  of  our  batteries  have  opened  a  brisk  fire.  A  large 
balloon  has  just  ascended  from  the  other  side,  which  is  a 
novel  sight  for  many  of  us.  A  company  of  bridge- 


XV 


226  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [December, 

builders  have  commenced  to  rebuild  the  railroad  bridge, 
working  under  cover  of  our  batteries. 

"Noon. — Batteries  are  now  hotly  engaged  on  both 
sides  of  the  river.  The  infantry  is  now  becoming 
engaged  in  rear  of  the  town.  Now  we  can  hear  the 
thunder  of  batteries,  the  whizzing  of  shot,  the  hurtling  of 
shell,  their  explosion  in  air,  the  rattle  and  crash  of  mus 
ketry,  and  the  hissing  and  humming  of  stray  bullets 
which  pop  over  our  heads.  No  doubt  we  shall  soon  be 
engaged.  Our  captain  is  back  in  camp  sick.  Lieuten 
ant  Hutchinson  commands  the  company,  and  Lieutenant 
Little  is  the  only  other  officer. 

i(l  2  p.  m. — The  brigade  next  to  us  is  now  moving  to 

the  front. 

«  2  :20. We  have  advanced  near  the  front,  at  the  left 

ot  the  city,  and  are  now  lying  under  the  brow  of  a  small 
ridge.  The  musketry  firing  is  terrific  only  a  few  rods  in 
front  of  us.  Orders  to  4  Forward.' 

"I  can  never  describe,  nor  can  I  ever  forget,  the 
scenes  of  that  afternoon,  after  the  fall  of  Lieutenant 
Lewis.  The  plain  known  as  the  '  slaughter-pen,'  thickly 
strewed  with  dead  and  dying,  the  bursting  of  shell  in  our 
very  midst,  cannon  balls  tearing  up  the  earth  around  us, 
the  air  filled  with  the  hissing  and  screeching  of  the  un 
seen  missiles  of  death,  bullets  striking  the  ground  all 
around  us  and  throwing  up  mud  and  gravel  in  our  faces, 
the  shouts  of  officers,  the  yells  of  the  wounded,  the  gaps 
made  in  our  ranks  at  every  step,  and  that,  too,  when 
rushing  at  the  top  of  our  speed,  the  frightful  looking 
corpses  which  strewed  the  ground  still  reeking  with 
kl00d all  was  hideous,  frightful,  hellish — I  was  suffer 
ing  from  a  severe  cold  and  shortness  of  breath,  and  when 
about  two  thirds  of  the  distance  across  the  plain  stumbled 


i862.]  FREDERICKSBURG.  22J 

and  fell,  and  attempting  to  rise  seemed  completely 
exhausted.  Dead  and  dying  lay  thick  around  me,  and 
the  missiles  of  death  spared  not  even  these. 

"I  hastily  freed  myself  from  all  luggage  except  my 
arms,  ammunition,  haversack,  and  canteen.  I  then 
sprang  to  my  feet  and  pushed  on  to  the  front.  Here, 
being  partially  protected  by  the  embankment,  I  fired  my 
fifty  rounds  of  cartridges  to  the  best  of  my  ability — and 
most  of  my  comrades  did  the  same. 

"  Darkness  now  drew  on,  and  wrhen  we  ceased  firing 
we  were  covered  with  mud,  our  faces  blackened  with 
powder,  our  bodies  freely  perspiring  under  the  activity 
and  excitement  of  the  scene,  and  our  whole  selves  weary 
with  the  day's  scenes  and  labors. 

"Soon  after  dusk  our  regiment  was  ordered  to  fall 
back  to  the  city.  Stepped  into  several  slough-holes  on 
my  way  back,  filling  both  boots  with  mud  and  water. 

"  Arrived  at  the  city,  and  after  a  sad  roll-call,  in  which 
neither  of  my  three  tent-mates  answered  to  their  names, 
were  ordered  to  rest  as  comfortably  as  possible,  but  in 
no  case  to  light  a  fire.  I  turned  in  with  George,  Tracy, 
Burnham,  and  some  others,  and  after  returning  thanks 
to  God  for  our  preservation,  we  lay  down  close  beside  an 
old  slave-pen,  and  covering  ourselves  with  our  blankets 
were  soon  asleep. 

"  But  scarcely  had  we  forgotten  the  horrors  of  war 
and  begun  to^ dream  of  home,  when  in  husky  tones  we 
heard  the  order,  '  Ninth  New  Hampshire,  fall  in ! ' 
which  we  did  as  quietly  as  possible,  took  a  fresh  supply 
of  ammunition,  and  again  started  for  the  front.  Arriv 
ing  on  the  field  something  after  midnight,  we  were  sta 
tioned  as  a  reserve  picket  force  near  the  old  brick-kilns. 
A  heavy,  chilling  fog  settled  down  upon  the  plain,  and 
we  suffered  much  from  the  cold." 


228  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [December, 

"  The  '  rebs,'  meanwhile,  were  more  prodigal  of  their 
shells  than  they  had  been  the  day  before.  .  .  .  One 
of  them  exploded  in  the  midst  of  a  band  who,  across  the 
river  near  the  Lacy  House,  were  playing  <  Hail,  Colum 
bia  ! '  The  cessation  of  the  music  in  the  midst  of  the 
most  inspiring  strain  was  as  sudden  as  the  explosion  had 
been,  and  the  musicians  went  skedaddling  to  a  place 
of  safety  in  quicker  time  than  they  had  ever  played 
'Yankee  Doodle!'" 

[Apropos  of  the  above  statement  is  the  following  news 
paper  correspondence,  showing  why  the  music  was  cut 
short  at  Fredericksburg  :] 

To  the  Editor  National  Tribune: 

Let  me  say  a  word  about  that  music  at  the  crossing 
of  the  Rappahannock,  alluded  to  by  General  Howard  in 
his  article  on  Fredericksburg.  After  my  brigade  (First 
brigade,  Second  division,  Ninth  corps)  had  crossed  the 
river,  it  lay  in  line  on  the  first  street  parallel  with 
the  river — the  right  of  my  regiment  (the  Ninth  New 
Hampshire)  being  opposite  the  end  of  the  bridge,  above 
the  railroad  bridge.  While  we  were  lying  there  the 
Twelfth  New  Hampshire  (a  new  regiment)  came  march 
ing  across  the  plain  west  of  the  Lacy  House,  with  their 
band  at  the  head  of  the  column.  When  they  came  to 
the  descent  leading  down  to  the  pontoons,  instead  of 
taking  advantage  of  a  ravine,  which  would  have  covered 
them,  they  started  down  the  open  slope  in  plain  view  of 
the  Johnnies'  batteries.  When  the  band  came  to  the 
crest  of  the  descent,  they  could  look  across  the  river  and 
see  the  thousands  of  troops  that  had  preceded  them,  and 
they  struck  up  "  Bully  for  You,  Bully  for  You."  At 
this,  old  Gen.  Sam  Sturgis,  commanding  the  division, 


SERGT.  WM.  H.  HABTWELL,  Co.  I.  Q.  M.  SERGT.  CHARLES  E.  RUGG. 


xi 


SERGT.  WM.  H.  HARTWELL,  Co.  I.  EDWARD  M.  MESSENGER,  Co.  I. 


1862.]  FREDERICKSBURG.  22$ 

who  was  sitting  on  a  door-step  in  front  of  my  regiment, 

said:  "Who  in  commands  that  brigade?      He'll 

get  the  eternal  stuffing  knocked  out  of  him  in  two 
minutes."  He  had  hardly  got  the  words  out  when 
"quit,  quit,"  came  a  couple  of  shells  over  our  heads, 
and  I  tell  you  what,  Mr.  Editor,  they  cut  that  "Bully 
for  You  "  mighty  short. 

WM.  H.  HARTWELL, 

Sergeant,  Co.  /,  yth  N.  H.    Vols. 
Kirkwood,  111. 

"  By  the  time  I  had  fired  my  sixty-four  rounds  it  was 
nearly  dark,  my  gun  was  so  foul  I  could  scarcely  force 
a  bullet  home,  and  taking  a  plump-looking  haversack 
that  lay  just  in  front  of  me,  I  crawled  back  a  few  steps, 
where  I  should  be  more  out  of  the  way  of  stray  balls. 
Opening  the  haversack,  I  found  a  box  of  butter  and 
a  plentiful  supply  of  pork  and  hard  bread,  and  soon 
put  myself  outside  of  nearly  an  ordinary  day's  rations, 
rendezvoused  near  where  we  passed  the  previ 
ous  night.  Our  ranks  were  much  thinned,  but  as  there 
were  of  course  many  stragglers,  we  could  not  ascertain 
anything  definite  in  regard  to  our  loss.  A  large  number 
of  us  had  taken  possession  of  a  heavy  brick  building 
formerly  used  as  a  slave-pen,  intending  to  make  it  our 
quarters  for  the  night.  Several  of  us  had  reached  the 
third  story,  and  were  spreading  our  blankets,  when — 
crash  came  a  shell  against  the  wall !  The  explosion 
nearly  stunned  us,  and  sent  the  bricks  whizzing  most 
unpleasantly  about  our  ears." 

"  Dec.  14. — The  wounded  of  yesterday  are  being 
brought  in,  and  we  are  kept  busy  in  the  hospitals." 

"Remained  in  the  vicinity  of  the  brick-kilns  all  day. 
The  plain  is  strewed  with  corpses,  and  all  the  debris 


230  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [December, 

ever  to  be  found  upon  a  modern  battle-field.  From  the 
numerous  knapsacks  lying  about  we  have  supplied  our 
selves  with  blankets  in  place  of  those  lost  yesterday, 
and  many  other  comforts.  I  exchanged  my  boots, 
burst  open  at  the  sides  and  worn  through  on  the  bot 
toms,  for  a  good  pair  of  shoes  from  feet  that  have  no 
further  use  for  them.  Also  took  from  a  knapsack  a 
good  pair  of  socks,  of  which  I  was  greatly  in  need,  and 
a  pair  of  new  woollen  drawers. 

"  No  firing  to-day,  except  occasional  skirmishes  along 
the  picket  line.  Moved  back  into  the  city  at  dark,  and 
for  the  third  time  lay  down  to  sleep  in  the  streets  of 
Fredericksburg.  The  city  is  full  of  wounded,  and  every 
house  is  a  hospital,  and  few  but  might  be  called  '  dead 
houses.' 

"  Soon  after  midnight  we  were  called  out,  furnished 
with  a  fresh  supply  of  ammunition,  and  sent  as  a  reserve 
picket  to  the  outskirts  of  the  city,  south  of  the  railroad. 
Here,  in  what  had  been  a  flower-bed,  curled  up  on  my 
blanket-roll  and  haversack,  I  was  soon  asleep  again, 
and  did  not  wake  till  morning.  This  morning  a  detail 
was  called  for  to  fill  up  the  color  guard,  and  I  volun 
teered  to  go.  Will  now  be  with  my  chum  Tracy  all  the 
time." 

"  Dec.  15. — Was  this  morning  stationed  on  guard  at 
the  church.  While  here  I  received  letters  from  home, 
also  a  pair  of  boots,  which  I  very  much  needed.  Re 
mained  on  guard  all  day.  As  soon  as  darkness  came 
we  were  told  to  take  our  effects  and  report  to  the 
division  hospital  on  the  north  side.  .  .  .  We  had 
a  good  night's  rest,  which  is  the  first  since  we  went  to 
the  city,  either  assisting  at  the  amputating-table  or  on 
guard  for  the  past  sixty  hours." 


1862.  ]  FREDERICKSB  UR  G.  231 

"  Had  a  chance  to  cook  a  warm  breakfast,  clean 
our  guns,  collect  stragglers,  etc.,  this  morning.  Also 
counted  up  our  loss,  as  nearly  as  it  could  be  ascertained. 
Foots  up  eight  or  ten  killed  and  ninety  wounded, 
with  quite  a  number  still  missing.  In  Company  E  five 
are  missing  and  eight  are  wounded,  among  them  Barber, 
whose  left  arm,  crushed  by  a  piece  of  shell,  has  been 
disjointed  at  the  shoulder. 

*'  Witnessed  to-day  some  of  the  horrors  of  war  in  a 
new  form,  or  rather  in  a  new  degree.  About  sunrise 
commenced  moving  the  wounded  to  the  Falmouth  side. 
Oh,  my  God,  spare  me  the  pain  of  such  another  sight! 
For  eight  long  hours  the  streets  were  crowded  with  the 
mutilated  victims  of  Saturday's  fighting.  Those  who 
have  the  use  of  their  limbs  are  hobbling  along  as  best 
they  can,  many  on  crutches  of  their  own  manufacture, 
hastily  improvised  from  fence-boards,  or  anything  that 
would  serve  their  purpose,  many  leaning  for  support  on 
those  but  slightly  wounded,  and  thousands  are  being 
borne  along  on  stretchers  and  in  ambulances.  The 
heart  sickens  at  such  a  sight  of  suffering.  „  .  .  And 
yet,  from  all  these  bleeding,  suffering  thousands  I  have 
not  heard  a  groan  or  complaint.  Hundreds  are  left 
dead  about  the  hospitals.  .  .  Not  only  are  our 

wounded  crossing  the  river,  but  ammunition  and  stores 
are  recrossing,  so  that  it  looks  like  an  evacuation. 

11  Very  little  fighting  during  the  day.  Soon  after  dark 
we  were  supplied  with  extra  ammunition,  and  with  the 
rest  of  our  brigade  moved  out  of  the  city  toward  the 
front.  Even  the  rattling  of  a  tin  cup  was  forbidden. 
At  the  front  we  were  variously  disposed  of.  Company 
E  and  two  or  three  other  companies  were  taken  into  the 
second  story  of  an  old  brick  building, — very  large,  but 
which  seemed  to  have  only  one  apartment  above — placed 


232  NINTH  NE IV  HA MPSHIRE.  [December, 

around  the  room  next  the  wall,  and  ordered  to  dig  loop 
holes  thro'  the  brick  walls  with  bayonets  as  quietly  as 
possible.  We  were  not  permitted  to  speak  aloud,  and 
were  forbidden  on  pain  of  death  to  look  out  of  a  window 
when  it  should  become  light.  The  object  of  this  per 
formance  I  am  at  a  loss  to  divine,  but  if  the  enemy  had 
advanced  upon  us  suddenly  we  must  all  have  been  cap 
tured  ;  or,  if  they  had  fired  a  single  shell  into  the  old 
building,  it  might  have  torn  it  to  shatters  and  buried  us  in 
its  ruins.  About  midnight  we  were  ordered  out  of  the 
building,  and  we  freely  obeyed,  tho'  as  stealthily  as  we 
had  entered  it.  We  moved  on  towards  the  city,  but  on 
entering  it,  instead  of  finding  the  streets  crowded  with 
troops  as  we  had  left  them,  there  was  not  a  soldier  to  be 
seen  outside  our  ranks,  and  an  ominous  silence,  broken 
only  by  our  stealthy  footfalls,  pervaded  the  whole  city. 
Passing  along  the  main  streets,  we  at  length  filed  down  to 
the  river,  and  there  were  no  longer  any  doubts  as  to  the 
movement — we  were  retreating  across  the  Rappahannock. 

"As  we  stepped  upon  the  pontoon  bridge  every  heart 
beat  with  mingled  sensations  of  joy  and  grief.  Joy,  that 
another  great  battle  was  ended  and  we  were  able  to 
write  to  our  friends  *  we  are  safe.'  But  this  feeling  was 
far  outweighed  by  the  thought  that  our  great  army  was 
again  defeated,  and  by  the  remembrance  of  the  noble 
comrades  we  had  left  unburied  behind,  and  the  anguish 
which  would  accompany  the  news  of  their  death  to  thous 
ands  of  homes.  Our  regiment  had  entered  Fredericks- 
burg  with  about  600  men,  and  we  were  returning  with 
about  350. 

"We  returned  to  our  old  camp-ground,  and  being 
weary  and  sleepy  we  lay  down,  very  many  of  us  without 
pitching  our  tents,  and  with  a  few  sighs  for  our  dead  and 
wounded  comrades,  we  fell  asleep." 


CHAPTER   VII. 
CLOSING  UP  THE  YEAR. 

The  year  1862  was  drawing  to  a  close.  The  Ninth 
New  Hampshire  had  seen  nearly  four  months  of  active 
service,  and  during  that  time  had  participated  in  three 
battles.  It  had  been  a  stern  experience  for  lads  scarce 
starting  in  life  for  themselves, — one  that  would  leave  its 
impress  on  all  their  future.  But  there  were  brave  hearts 
left,  in  spite  of  disaster,  defeat,  and  hardship.  There 
had  been  much  to  discourage  and  dishearten,  yet  they 
had  shown  themselves  true  men,  and  in  the  face  of  their 
sadly  diminished  numbers  still  looked  into  the  future 
with  the  utmost  intrepidity.  Surely  there  would  be  a 
reward  for  all  this  terrible  suffering,  and  the  right  must 
prevail. 

In  the  absence  of  Colonel  Titus,  Lieutenant-Colonel 
Babbitt  had  led  the  regiment  at  Fredericksburg,  and  he 
thus  reported  the  specific  action  of  the  Ninth  New 
Hampshire  to  Brigadier-General  Nagle  : 

"I  have  the  honor  to  forward  herewith  a  list  of  the 
loss  of  this  regiment  in  the  engagement  of  Saturday  last, 
near  this  city,  which  is  as  correct  as  can  be  made  at  this 
time.  Some  of  those  reported  as  missing  are  expected 
to  soon  join  the  command,  while  it  is  feared  that  others  of 
that  number  will  prove  to  have  been  killed. 

"The  regiment  was  ordered  to  advance  about  two 
o'clock  from  the  bank  of  the  river,  each  company  mov- 


234  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [December, 

ing  in  column  through  the  streets  until  arriving  outside 
the  city  near  the  scene  of  action,  where  it  formed  in  line 
of  battle  and  awaited  orders.  It  was  then  ordered  to 
move  by  the  right  flank  forming  line  upon  the  railroad 
track,  and  was  thus  ordered  to  advance.  After  passing 
the  railroad,  while  in  a  deep  cut,  the  regiment  received 
a  galling,  enfilading  fire  from  the  enemy's  artillery, 
which  was  continued  with  great  effect  after  passing 
beyond.  Notwithstanding  this  repulse,  the  men,  though 
in  considerable  confusion,  pushed  forward  and  took  a 
good  position,  where  they  remained  until  dark.  Most  of 
the  companies  having  then  exhausted  their  ammunition, 
they  withdrew  in  good  order,  following  the  Forty-eighth 
Pennsylvania  volunteers. 

"The  conduct  of  officers  and  men,  considering  the 
difficulty  and  extreme  danger  of  the  first  advance,  was 
most  commendable.  Sergeant  Dinsmore,  bearer  of  the 
National  colors,  fell  early  in  the  action,  mortally  wound 
ed,  and  the  colors  were  brought  safely  through  by  Sec 
ond  Lieutenant  Copp  of  Company  C.  I  regret  to  report 
the  instant  death  of  First  Lieutenant  John  G.  Lewis  of 
Company  H,  an  efficient  and  gallant  officer,  who  was 
killed  soon  after  passing  the  cut  near  the  railroad. 
Captain  John  B.  Cooper  of  Company  K,  having  been 
absent  for  months  past  on  account  of  wounds  received 
at  the  Battle  of  Antietam,  joined  his  command  only  an 
hour  before  the  order  to  advance,  and  did  good  service. 
Other  officers  were  slightly  wounded,  most  of  whom  will 
soon  be  able  to  resume  their  commands." 

The  official  list  of  the  killed,  wounded,  and  missing, 
between  the  dates  of  December  n  and  December  16, 
follows  : 


LIEUT.  COL.  JOHN  W.  BABBITT. 


1862.]  CLOSING  UP  THE   YEAR.  235 

Four  were  killed  outright :  Private  G.  W.  Wright  of 
Company  C,  Sergeant  E.  W.  Dinsmore  and  Private 
W.  S.  Chapman  of  Company  F,  and  First  Lieutenant 
John  G.  Lewis  of  Company  H. 

The  wounded  numbered  sixty-eight : 

Company  A.— First  Sergeant  L.  H.  Caldwell, 
Sergeants  J.  G.  Merrill  and  Morrison  Alexander, 
Privates  B.  D.  James,  W.  McGarrett,  J.  L.  Archer, 
F.  Love  joy. 

Company  B. — First  Sergeant  W.  H.  Edmunds, 
Privates  J.  Harrington,  J.  Carroll,  W.  Griffin,  A.  P. 
Home. 

Company  C. — Captain  A.  S.  Edgerly,  Corporals  John 
Robinson  and  J.  S.  Bean,  Privates  J.  S.  Chase, 
O.  Hutchinson,  C.  J.  Ranlet,  S.  Tibbetts,  J.  W. 
Williams. 

Company  D. — Privates  G.  B.  Brown,  P.  Potter,  C.  A. 
Hall,  A.  Eastman,  E.  Bunce,  Peter  Menard. 

Company  E. — Privates  J.  S.  Rowell,  F.  Howe,  A.  J. 
Davis,  H.  C.  Bugbee,  A.  Griffith,  D.  Hadley,  G.  W. 
Barber,  B.  F.  Pettingill. 

Company  F. — Lieutenant  L.  B.  Little,  Privates 
N.  W.  Wier,  H.  A.  Clement. 

Company  G. — Lieutenant  Charles  A.  Harnden, 
Privates  J.  F.  Wilkins,  C.  W.  Wheeler. 

Company  H. — Sergeant  J.  B.  Tumbly,  Corporals  A. 
Little,  C.  H.  Watts,  Privates  J.  G.  Clogston,  'J.  Avery, 
C.  H.  Wentworth,  M.  F.  Gray,  F.  Dexter,  J.  Scott,  L. 
Beard,  H.  Martin,  W.  C.  Eastman,  J.  Buffum,  J.  H. 
Howard,  N.  Whitcomb,  M.  Hester. 

Company  I. — Privates  A.  A.  Wymer,  M.  R.  Ellis. 

Company  K. — Corporals  E.  R.  Emerson,  E.  R.  Mil 
ler,  A.  Brown,  Privates  G.  F.  Blood,  G.  A.  Chase,  O. 


236  A'lNTH  NE  W  HAMPSHIRE.  [December, 

L.  Cummings,  G.  N.  Loving,  A.  Patmorn,  C.  Sanborn, 
S.  F.  Lane. 

Twelve  were  reported  as  missing  : 

Company  B.— Sergeant  W.  Pettingill,  Private  D. 
Kean  (wounded,  and  died  December  29),  Privates  W. 
McClary,  H.  J.  Page,  W.  L.  Skillings.  " 

Company  C.— Privates  J.  Bradford,  Thomas  F. 
Gile,  Jr. 

Company  D. — Private  Orrin  S.  Abbott. 

Company  E.— Privates  R.  W.  Clark,  F.  W.  Rand, 
A.  C.  Stephens,  E.  O.  Sheppard. 

The  following  spirited  account  of  the  part  borne  by 
Company  H,  whose  gallant  first  lieutenant  was  killed 
outright,  and  whose  wounded  numbered  three  officers 
and  thirteen  privates,  finds  appropriate  place  here  : 

COMPANY    H    AT   FREDERICKSBURG. 

By  Capt.   Charles  IV.  Edgerly. 

I  saw,  and  Company  H  saw,  as  much  of  the  Battle  of 
Fredericksburg,  and  a  little  more,  than  any  other  com 
pany  in  the  regiment. 

Colonel  Babbitt  will  probably  remember,  and  Adju 
tant  Chandler  certainly  would,  that  Company  H  was 
detailed  the  day  before  the  battle  (and  I  was  the  only 
commissioned  officer  at  the  time)  to  report  to  Lieutenant- 
Colonel  Gillespie,  at  the  Lacy  House,  for  fatigue  duty 
for  twenty-four  hours.  I  reported  to  him  at  9  a.  m.,  and 
we  awaited  orders  from  him  till  10  p.  m.,  when  the  pon 
toon  train  arrived,  and  we  marched  some  three  miles 
below  the  city  to  a  place  called  Deep  Run,  where  we 
were  furnished  with  picks,  shovels,  and  axes,  and  then 


i862.]  CLOSING  UP  THE   YEAR.  237 

we  went  to  work  in  good  earnest  to  build  a  road  over  the 
steep  bank  to  the  river. 

Every  man  worked  with  a  will,  and  as  quietly  as 
possible.  A  Massachusetts  regiment  was  in  our  front, 
to  protect  us,  and  the  pontoon  men,  who  were  laying  the 
boats;  and  Raymond's  battery  on  the  river-bank,  at  the 
very  spot  where  we  began  to  grade  the  road  on  the  hill 
side,  was  in  readiness  in  case  of  an  attack  by  the  John 
nies.  All  went  well ;  we  had  our  road  completed,  and 
were  moving  about  to  keep  warm  and  kill  time  till  day 
light,  when  at  four  o'clock  in  the  morning  we  were  dis 
covered  by  the  enemy. 

A  blue  rocket  went  up  from  the  rebel  camp  in  our 
front,  followed  immediately  by  a  red  one,  and  then  we 
heard  the  long  roll  beat,  and  in  less  than  five  minutes  we 
saw  a  rebel  regiment  coming  down  the  road  leading  to 
the  pontoon  bridge,  which  by  that  time  was  nearly  com 
pleted. 

Our  boys  were  standing  just  a  little  to  the  left  and  rear 
of  Raymond's  battery  when  they  discharged  the  first 
piece  at  the  advancing  rebs.  This  shot  was  followed  by 
several  others  from  the  same  battery,  and  in  less  than 
thirty  minutes  afterwards  our  batteries  were  all  at  work. 
So  that  the  first  piece  of  artillery  to  open  fire  on  the 
Union  side  in  that  great  battle  was  in  position  to  cover 
the  men  who  were  laying  the  pontoon  bridge  and  Com 
pany  H  of  the  Ninth  New  Hampshire  volunteers. 

When  we  returned  to  camp  the  whole  Ninth  corps  was 
out  on  the  plain  in  front  of  the  Lacy  House,  where  I 
reported  to  Colonel  Babbitt,  and  then  went  to  camp  for 
rations  and  arms  and  rejoined  the  regiment  as  soon  as 
possible.  The  regiment  returned  to  camp  that  night, 
and  the  next  morning  crossed  the  pontoons  into  the  city. 


NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [December, 

Company  H  was  therefore  in  at  the  beginning  as  well  as 
the  ending  of  the  Battle  of  Fredericksburg. 


GLINTS    FROM    THE    FIELD. 
FREDERICKSBURG,  Dec.  13,  1862. 

[Lines  found  in  the  knapsack  of  Charles  H.  Duncan,  Company  E, 
after  his  death  at  Camp  Burnside,  Ky.] 

At  early  morn,  that  awful  day, 

The  mist  along  the  river  lay, 

And,  wrapt  in  dense  and  massive  cloud, 

Lay  Union  hearts  and  rebels  proud ; 

Too  soon  in  deadly  strife  arrayed, 

Too  soon  by  slaughter  lowly  laid. 

For,  ere  the  yonder  rising  sun 

Again  his  daily  race  has  run, 

The  cannon's  deep  and  horrid  roar 

Shall  sound  from  either  quaking  shore, 

The  million  deadly  bullets  fly, 

And  shrieking  shells  shall  plough  the  sky. 

"Ye  lowVing  mists,  still  longer  stay  ; 
Ye  winds,  still  longer  cease  to  play, — 
Nor  lift  the  frail  and  cloudy  screen, 
And  open  to  the  world  the  scene 
Of  blood  and  horror,  pain  and  death, 
To  still  the  blood  and  stop  the  breath ! " 

Thus  weeping  Mercy  loudly  calls 
Through  Frederick's  torn  and  trampled  halls. 
But  Justice  stands,  with  sterner  mien, 
Bearing  the  sword  most  bright  and  keen : 
««  The  cause  is  just,  is  glorious, 
Shall  be,  at  last,  victorious. 


1862.]  CLOSING  UP  THE   YEAR.  239 

"Who  dies  in  freedom's  holy  cause — 
Dies  to  protect  her  trampled  laws, 
Throws  not  his  sacred  life  away — 
His  name  shall  live  in  future  day ; 
What  though,  unknown,  he  lowly  rest, 
His  dust  is  precious,  memory  blest.1' 

But  see,  the  strong  and  mighty  sun 
The  airy  field  hath  fairly  won  ; 
The  broken  mists  now  lowly  fly, 
Or  on  the  hill-tops  softly  lie  ; 
And  now,  like  man's  immortal  soul, 
They  calmly,  swiftly,  upward  roll. 

Oh,  would  that  ev'ry  martyr  soul 
Might  thus  attain  a  heavenly  goal ; 
For  God,  as  for  his  country,  die, 
And  dwell  eternally  on  high  ! 
Then  should  our  grief  with  faith  arise, 
As  when  the  Christian  patriot  dies. 


The  survivors  of  the  Battle  of  Fredericksburg  will 
never  cease  to  wonder  how  they  ever  came  through  such 
a  storm  of  lead  and  iron.  The  streets  of  the  city  were  a' 
mass  of  wreckage,  and  the  houses  were  riddled  with  shot 
and  shell,  no  less  than  thirty-eight  gaping  apertures 
being  counted  in  one  small  building.  Evidently  the  in 
habitants  were  compelled  to  leave  at  short  notice,  for  in 
many  instances  tables  were  standing  spread,  with  the 
food  half  consumed  upon  the  plates. 


Under  the  supervision  of  the  brigade  surgeon,  Dr. 
Cutter,  the  members  of  the  band  were  doing  a  noble 
work.  During  the  engagement  they  were  literally  with 
out  rest  or  sleep,  and  though  as  many  of  the  wounded  as 


240  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [December, 

possible  were  sent  to  Washington,  still  so  many  were  left 
that  the  members  of  the  two  bands  were  divided  into  two 
squads  for  night  and  day  service.  Their  principal  duties 
were  the  preparation  of  tea,  coffee,  beef  tea,  and  soup 
and  vegetables  for  the  sick,  and  to  assist  the  surgeon  in 
the  dressing  of  wounds. 


Talk  of  comforts  for  the  sick  !  A  visit  to  the  hos 
pital  tents  on  the  morning  of  the  i6th  of  December  would 
have  revealed  very  little  in  that  line  of  commodities.  A 
heavy  rain  had  fallen  the  night  before,  and  the  blazing 
fires  in  front  of  the  tents  was  the  only  cheerful  feature  of 
the  scene.  Here  and  there  between  the  tents  could  be 
seen  the  bodies  of  those  who  had  died  during  the  night, 
each  with  a  bit  of  cloth  over  the  face  and  a  piece  of 
paper  bearing  their  name  and  company  pinned  on  the 
breast.  Death  in  any  form  is  ghastly,  but  who  could 
repress  a  shudder  of  horror  at  the  sight  of  those  poor 
maimed  bodies,  as  they  lay  there  in  the  slowly  dripping 
rain,  awaiting  burial !  Inside  the  tents  the  ground  was 
covered  with  straw,  or  pine  and  cedar  boughs,  and  on 
these  rude  couches,  wrapped  in  their  blankets,  lay  men 
wounded  in  every  conceivable  manner,  yet  cheerful, 
despite  their  dismal  surroundings.  Nor  was  this  the 
worst,  for  many  of  the  wounded  had  lain  all  night  in  the 
drenching  rain,  without  even  a  blanket,  for  lack  of  ac 
commodations. 

Private  George  W.  Barber  of  Company  E  was  among 
the  severely  wounded,  and  was  discharged  for  disability 
three  months  later.  As  the  regiment  was  hurrying  over 
the  plain  known  as  the  "  slaughter-pen,"  a  large  piece 
of  shell  struck  his  left  arm  near  the  shoulder,  shattering 


i862.]  CLOSING  UP  THE   YEAR.  24! 

the  bone  and  lacerating  the  flesh.  Bullets  and  shells 
were  claiming  victims  all  around  him,  but  he  coolly 
undid  the  rope  that  bound  his  blanket,  then  wound  it 
tightly  around  his  arm,  to  stanch  the  bleeding,  and 
started  back  towards  the  city.  On  the  way  he  became 
faint  from  pain  and  loss  of  blood,  and  was  put  on  a 
stretcher  and  taken  to  the  Baptist  church,  which  had 
been  utilized  as  an  amputating-room.  Here  his  arm 
was  taken  off  at  the  shoulder  joint,  but  his  life  was  de 
spaired  of.  The  next  morning  found  him  still  alive, 
however,  and  he  was  placed  in  an  ambulance,  carried 
across  the  river,  and  put  in  a  tent.  He  lay  there  for 
thirty-six  hours  without  the  slightest  attention,  and  with 
nothing  to  eat  or  drink  except  a  little  water ;  but  there 
was  good  stuff  in  the  fellow,  and  he  finally  pulled 
through  all  right. 

Sergeant  Robinson  says, — 

"All  of  my  three  tent-mates  (including  Barber)  were 
missing  on  the  morning  of  the  i6th.  I  started  for  the 
Second  Division  hospital  to  search  for  them.  After  a 
long  hunt,  during  which  I  lifted  the  cloth  from  many  a 
dead  man's  face,  I  found  Barber.  He  gave  me  some 
trinkets  from  his  pockets,  including  his  diary,  to  send  to 
his  friends,  and  said,  4  Whatever  comes  of  this,  tell  them 
I  have  no  regrets  for  the  course  I  have  taken.'  Some 
three  months  later,  while  I  was  sick  in  the  hospital  in 
Washington,  Barber  walked  into  my  ward  one  day  on 
his  way  home,  going  back  to  school  and  college.  I 
gave  him  back  the  trinkets,  including  some  bullets  that 
he  picked  up  when  he  was  hit,  and  his  diary." 

XVI 


242  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [December, 

The  lyth  of  December  was  very  cold,  and  a  light 
snow  had  fallen  on  the  field,  hiding  from  view  the  un- 
buried  bodies  of  the  slain,  who  lay  where  they  had  fallen 
in  the  field  beyond  the  town.  That  day,  however,  a 
detachment  of  men  was  sent  across  the  river  under  a 
flag  of  truce,  and  the  dead  were  decently  interred. 

Captain  Edgerly  contributes  the  following  peculiar 
incident : 

"There  was  a  man  in  Company  D  by  the  name  of 
Potter,  and  he  was  the  only  man  in  our  regiment,  to  my 
knowledge,  that  had  the  moral  courage  to  pray  audibly 
every  night  before  retiring  to  rest,  and  while  we  were 
encamped  near  Falmouth,  Va.,  his  tent  was  near  mine, 
and  I  heard  him  pray  often,  and  I  respected  him  for  his 
moral  courage,  and  became  quite  well  acquainted  with 
him.  At  the  Battle  of  Fredericksburg,  while  we  were 
in  front  of  Marye's  heights  and  the  rebel  rifle-pits,  our 
regiment  was  badly  mixed  up  with  others,  and  the  cas 
ualties  of  battle  were  very  numerous.  Mixed  in  with 
my  own  company  I  saw  Potter,  and  blood  was  stream 
ing  from  his  mouth.  I  spoke  to  him  and  asked  him  if 
he  was  badly  wounded,  but  he  only  shook  his  head,  so  I 
found  he  could  not  talk.  The  next  morning  I  went  into 
a  house  to  see  some  of  our  wounded  men,  and  Dr.  Gib 
son  was  in  charge ;  among  others  I  saw  Potter  and 
spoke  to  him,  but  he  again  shook  his  head.  I  asked 
Dr.  Gibson  in  regard  to  his  wound,  and  he  told  me  that  a 
ball  had  passed  through  his  mouth  parallel  with  the  lips, 
taking  out  some  of  his  teeth,  and  passing  under  the 
tongue  had  cut  it  nearly  half  oflf.  I  have  never  seen 
him  since,  but  I  have  thought  of  him  many  times,  and 
how  strange  it  was  that  our  only  audibly  praying  man 
should  have  his  tongue  severed  by  a  rebel  bullet;  but 


i862.]  CLOSING  UP  THE   YEAR.  243 

at  the  same  time  I  think  he  was  a  good  man.     I  believe 
he  is  still  living  at  Conway,  N.  H." 


With  a  total  loss  on  the  Union  side  of  1,284  killed  and 
9,600  wounded,  it  is  not  strange  that  in  caring  for  the 
living  the  dead,  who  could  suffer  no  more,  were  neg 
lected.  In  his  official  report  General  McLaws  accounts 
in  a  measure  for  the  heavy  loss  on  the  Federal  side. 
He  says, — "The  body  of  one  man,  believed  to  be  an 
officer,  was  found  within  about  thirty  yards  of  the  stone 
wall,  and  other  single  bodies  were  scattered  at  increased 
distances,  until  the  main  mass  of  the  dead  lay  thickly 
strewn  over  the  ground  at  something  over  one  hundred 
yards  off,  and  extending  to  the  ravine,  commencing  at 
the  point  where  our  men  would  allow  the  enemy's  col 
umn  to  approach  before  opening  fire,  and  beyond  which 
no  organized  body  of  men  was  able  to  pass." 


Sergeant  Hiram  W.  French,  of  Company  D,  writes, — 
"  Those  who  were  with  us  when  we  were  hurled  against 
that  fatal  stone  wall  will  remember  that  we  crossed  a 
deep  ditch,  or  railroad  cut,  just  before.  The  enemy 
was  shelling  us  from  Marye's  heights,  and  I  recall  with 
what  a  feeling  of  relief  I  plunged,  slid,  and  tumbled 
down  into  that  cut,  believing  that  for  the  time  we  would 
be  safe  from  the  enemy's  fire.  But  alas  !  no  sooner  had 
I  reached  the  bottom  than  I  chanced  to  glance  off  to  our 
left,  in  the  direction  the  cut  ran,  and  saw  a  puff  of  white 
smoke,  then  another, — and  bang  !  bang  !  came  two  shells 
up  the  cut.  I  looked  back,  and  saw  some  of  the  offi 
cers  who  had  not  yet  come  down  into  the  cut.  At  that 
moment  Lieutenant  Lewis  (a  big,  fleshy  man)  fell  head- 


244  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [December, 

long  and  rolled  down  over  the  bank  into  the  cut.  Then 
I  heard  Colonel  Babbitt,  in  his  clear,  ringing  tones, 

shout,  i  Forward,  men,  forward!     They'll  shell  h 1 

out  of  you  here  ! '  We  climbed  the  opposite  bank,  and 
met  a  worse  fusillade  from  the  batteries  in  front,  one 
shell  exploding  right  in  the  faces  of  the  Company  E 
men  just  as  we  gained  the  top  of  the  slope." 


In  the  camp  proper,  matters  were  very  quiet.  There 
was  an  occasional  inspection,  but  in  the  main  the  men 
were  left  pretty  much  to  themselves.  One  day  a  couple 
of  them  procured  a  beef's  heart  and  a  chunk  of  tallow 
from  the  butcher,  and  going  into  the  woods  a  little  way, 
built  a  fire,  cooked  their  meat,  and  managed  to  divide 
the  heart  between  them  in  the  course  of  the  day. 

The  Ninth  had  its  share  of  the  picketing,  however, 
and  it  was  no  pleasant  task  to  pace  up  and  down  the 
bleak  shore  of  the  river  all  the  long,  dreary  night. 
Sometimes  fortune  smiled  on  them  though.  One  time 
in  particular  a  cold,  north-west  wind  had  been  blowing 
"great  guns"  all  day,  and  late  in  the  afternoon  the 
regiment  was  ordered  out.  But  as  good  luck  would 
have  it,  when  the  station  was  reached  it  was  found  to  be 
in  a  deep  ravine,  and  permission  to  light  fires  was  ob 
tained  ;  so  that,  sheltered  from  the  bitter  wind,  the  boys 
managed  to  have  a  pretty  jolly  time. 


Just  before  Christmas  the  regiment  was  paid  off  up  to 
the  first  of  November,  and  while  the  majority  of  the  men 
sent  the  greater  part  of  their  money  home,  nevertheless 
the  sutlers  did  a  thriving  business  the  next  few  days,  and 
the  boys  fairly  revelled  in  apples  and  other  luxuries. 


i862.]  CLOSING  UP  THE  YEAR.  245 

After  all,  man  is  largely  a  creature  of  circumstances. 
The  first  shock  of  horror  at  the  scenes  they  had  so 
recently  witnessed  passed  away,  and  with  the  coming 
of  pleasanter  weather  and  the  paymaster  and  sutlers 
there  was  a  wonderful  lightening  of  spirits,  and  the  boys 
were  as  jovial  and  happy  as  the  proverbial  coon  on  his 
favorite  maple ;  but  by  the  same  force  of  reasoning, 
under  the  depressing  influence  of  cold  and  the  lack  of 
creature  comforts  there  was  a  strong  suggestion  of  a 
farmer's  cattle  caught  in  an  unexpected  snow-squall. 

In  Chapter  VI,  under  date  of  December  13,  one  of 
the  diarists  mentions  the  fact  that  the  captain  of  the 
company  was  back  in  the  camp  sick.  The  following 
letter,  dated  December  24,  from  Captain  Alexander  to 
his  sister,  explains  the  circumstances  : 

"We  are  now  occupying  the  same  encampment  that 
we  have  done  for  the  past  month,  and  the  same  occupied 
by  our  troops  before  the  battle.  I  was  not  in  the  battle, 
as  I  had  been  sick  for  some  two  weeks  before  it  took 
place  with  severe  pains  in  my  back  and  sides — resulting, 
I  suppose,  from  a  cold.  So  severe  was  it  that  I  was 
unable  to  walk,  or  hardly  sit  up.  I  am  a  good  deal 
better  now,  so  that  I  have  returned  to  duty,  but  am  not 
yet  free  from  pain,  though  I  hope  soon  to  be  entirely 
well. 

"It  was  a  terrible  battle  fought  here,  and  a  terrible 
reverse  to  our  side.  I  hope  such  an  one  may  never 
again  befall  our  army.  No  chance  of  success  did  our 
troops  have  to  gain  a  victory.  The  rebels  had  fortified 
the  hills  in  the  rear  of  the  city  in  such  a  manner  that 
infantry  had  no  chance — before  they  could  get  within 
musket  range  they  were  subjected  to  a  most  galling  fire 
of  artillery,  and  when  they  arrived  near  enough  to  fire 


246  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [December, 

they  were  mowed  down  by  the  musket  balls  of  the  rebel 
infantry. 

"  I  do  not  know  whether  another  attempt  will  be  made 
or  not.  The  rebels  are  working  night  and  day,  throw 
ing  up  intrenchments  and  digging  rifle-pits,  so  they  are 
much  stronger  than  before.  If  they  attempt  it  again,  it 
will  be  a  bloody  contest.  I  hope  if  they  have  one  that 
I  shall  be  well,  and  able  to  lead  my  company,  for  I 
assure  you  I  never  spent  such  uncomfortable  days  in 
my  life  as  when  my  company  went  away  without  me, 
and  when  I  lay  in  my  tent  and  heard  the  roar  of  cannon 
and  the  sharp  crack  of  musketry,  and  knew  that  my 
company  was  there  and  I  not  with  them.  It  was  the 
first  time  it  had  ever  gone  anywhere  and  I  did  not  go 
with  them.  My  company  were  fortunate — I  had  none 
killed  and  only  four  wounded — but  the  left  wing  of  the 
regiment  suffered  much.  In  the  morning  I  was  deter 
mined  to  go,  but  the  surgeon  and  colonel  told  me  not  to 
attempt  it. 

4 *  There  is  a  very  probable  rumor  in  camp  that  the 
Ninth  Army  corps  is  going  to  Alexandria  this  winter. 
I  have  understood  that  Major-General  Sedgwick  has 
been  appointed  to  the  command  of  the  Ninth  corps,  and 
it  is  said  that  the  corps  he  commands  is  to  be  sent  for 
the  defence  of  Washington,  as  General  Sedgwick  has 
been  wounded  and  is  not  fit  for  active  service.  I  hope  it 
is  so,  for  the  regiment  has  suffered  and  endured  more,  I 
think,  than  any  other  regiment  in  the  same  time.  You 
would  not  know  it  if  you  were  to  see  it  to-day.  Yester 
day  we  had  a  grand  review  before  General  Sumner,  and 
our  regiment  only  brought  out  312  muskets — quite  a  dif 
ference  from  the  960  in  Concord.  I  can't  get  out  more 
than  thirty-five  men  at  the  most — the  rest  are  dead, 
wounded,  sick,  or  detailed — or  deserted." 


i862.]  CLOSING  UP  THE   YEAR.  \       247 

Merry  Christmas  saw  the  regiment  comfortably  estab 
lished  on  the  camp-ground  they  had  occupied  before 
crossing  the  Rappahannock.  Quiet  and  discipline  were 
fully  restored,  and  daily  drills  had  been  instituted  while 
the  reorganizing  and  equipping  of  the  troops  went  on. 
The  weather  that  day  was  mild  and  sunny,  and  strongly 
reminded  one  of  the  beautiful  days  of  the  Indian  summer 
in  the  far-off  Granite  state.  Chaplain  Gushee  conducted 
services  in  front  of  General  Nagle's  head-quarters,  and 
then  came  the  Christmas  dinner.  Beefsteak  and  potatoes 
were  luxuries  indeed  after  a  steady  diet  of  pork  and  hard 
tack,  and  were  greatly  enjoyed. 

The  remainder  of  the  month  slipped  away  in  the 
monotonous  round  of  duties,  the  only  special  incident 
being  the  promotion  of  Brigadier-General  Nagle  to  the 
command  of  the  division,  and  of  Colonel  Allen  of  the 
Second  Maryland  to  that  of  the  brigade.  The  last 
day  of  the  year  1862  closed  down  on  the  Ninth  New 
Hampshire  cold  and  rainy,  but  hope  still  whispered  that 
with  the  dawning  of  the  new  year  might  come  brighter 
fortunes. 

BESIDE  THE  CAMP-FIRE. 

The  Ninth  had  met  with  its  share  of  adventures  during 
the  stay  at  Fredericksburg,  and  a  few  brief  sketches  are 
here  inserted  in  remembrance  of  bygone  days. 

The  Chaplain's  Horse. — Up  to  this  time  Chaplain 
Gushee  had  been  obliged  to  ride  anything  but  a  desir 
able  beast,  but  the  boys  could  n't  quite  stand  that,  and  a 
beautiful  cream-colored  horse  was  provided  for  his  use. 
The  animal  was  a  great  favorite  with  the  chaplain,  who 
retained  him  as  long  as  he  himself  remained  in  the  army. 


248  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [December, 

A  Midnight  March. — One  cold,  stormy  night  Compa 
ny  I  was  ordered  on  picket  duty.  The  rest  of  the  regi 
ment  chuckled  at  their  good  fortune  in  being  under  cover, 
but  the  laugh  was  on  the  other  side  before  morning. 
The  Second  brigade  was  deep  in  its  beauty  sleep  when 
the  order  to  ''Turn  out  under  arms  !"  rang  through  the 
camp,  and  hastily  donning  their  equipments,  the  men 
were  soon  in  line.  Through  mud  and  snow  for  two 
long,  weary  miles  they  tramped,  the  order  was  given  to 
return,  and  they  finally  turned  in  again,  wet,  cold,  and 
thoroughly  disgusted,  heartily  echoing  the  regimental 
poet's  inspiration, — 

' '  The  toughest  march  that  <^ver  was  made 

Since  the  days  of  old  King  Pharaoh, 
Was  the  march  that  was  made  by  the  Second  brigade, 

By  order  of  General  Ferrero  !  " 

yightingin  His  Sleep. — Another  night,  when  the  camp 
lay  wrapped  in  slumber,  a  gun  was  discharged  right  in 
their  midst.  Of  course  everybody  turned  out  in  a  hurry, 
expecting  nothing  less  than  a  midnight  attack, — only  to 
find  that  Sergeant  Fletcher,  of  Company  I,  had  been 
tackling  the  enemy  single-handed  in  his  sleep,  and  had 
accidentally  discharged  his  gun,  the  ball  passing  through 
his  foot. 

Fifty  -per  Cent. — After  the  regiment  was  paid  off  it 
was  discovered  that  some  of  the  men  were  not  indisposed 
to  turn  an  honest  penny.  Two  of  them  invested  their 
joint  stock  in  apples,  and  after  indulging  themselves 
proceeded  to  peddle  out  the  rest  at  an  advance  of  fifty 
per  cent,  over  the  original  cost  before  the  boys  caught  on. 

Sugar  in  Theirs.  Just  before  going  into  camp  at 
Fredericksburg,  Sergeant  Wilcox  detailed  Foster,  Wheel 
er,  and  Kemp,  of  Company  I,  as  a  guard  over  the  brigade 


1862.]  CLOSING  UP  THE   YEAR.  249 

commissary  stores.  The  rest  of  the  regiment  had  gone 
along,  the  boys  were  left  to  themselves,  and  the  old  adage 
that  "When  the  cat's  away  the  mice  will  play,"  was 
exemplified.  "Jake"  Green  was  the  officer  of  the  guard, 
and  after  listening  in  silence  to  their  comments  on  their 
rations  for  some  time,  sympathetic  Jake  finally  burst 
out, — "The  orders  is  for  you  boys  to  steal  nottings  and 
let  nobody  else  steal  nottings  ;  but  mein  Gott,  boys,  if  you 
drinks  your  coffee  mitout  sugar  to-morrow,  you  be 

d d  fools  ! "     They   had    sugar  in  theirs  for  several 

mornings. 

A  leaf  from  a  soldier's  note-book  furnished  this  : 

"We  crossed  the  Rappahannock  river  into  the  city, 
Friday,  December  12.  Here  I  saw,  at  the  corner  of  a 
brick  house,  an  old  rebel  soldier  with  the  top  of  his  head 
shot  off,  leaving  a  part  of  the  ears  and  nose.  It  was  cut 
as  smooth  and  as  straight  as  if  done  with  a  knife. 

"For  the  first  time  since  leaving  home  I  had  the 
pleasure  of  sleeping  on  a  feather-bed,  one  that  we  boys 
borrowed  from  a  deserted  house.  We  also  confiscated  a 
barrel  of  flour  to  our  use,  which  we  speedily  converted 
into  griddle-cakes,  cooking  them  over  a  fire  which  we 
built  in  the  middle  of  the  street.  About  a  half  dozen  of 
us  were  having  a  good  time,  frying  and  eating,  when  a 
shell  burst  overhead,  and  a  good-sized  piece  dropped 
down  in  the  midst  of  our  frying-pans,  scattering  them — 
as  well  as  the  boys — in  a  hurry. 

"That  afternoon  we  had  other  cakes  to  fry,  I  can  tell 
you  ;  and  I  shall  never  forgot  the  charge  over  that  field 
and  through  the  deep  cut  where  the  rebels  mowed  us 
down  like  grass,  and  where  I  was  wounded  in  the  face 
by  a  piece  of  shell." 


250  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [December, 

And  now  a  bit  of  hospital  experience  from  a  lad  who 
was  only  sixteen  years  old  at  the  time  of  his  enlistment, 
and  who  afterwards  received  two  wounds  at  Spottsyl- 
vania  : 

"  After  the  fight  Wheeler,  Phillips,  and  myself  were 
detailed  to  go  over  with  the  party  who  were  to  bury  the 
dead.  The  trenches  were  dug  six  feet  wide  and  three 
feet  deep,  and  in  one  trench  in  particular  I  remember  of 
helping  put  in  two  hundred  and  seventy-five  men,  all  of 
them  entirely  nude,  for  the  rebels  were  short  of  clothing 
at  that  time. 

"We  were  there  burying  the  dead  two  days  and  one 
night.  The  night  we  returned  to  camp,  Wheeler,  Phil 
lips,  and  myself  were  taken  sick  with  typhoid  fever,  and 
in  a  few  days  were  loaded  into  a  freight  car  and  shipped 
to  Aquia  Creek  with  the  sick  and  wounded.  On  arriving 
there,  we  were  put  into  a  tent  that  would  hold  twelve 
small  cots.  We  had  one  man  to  attend  to  us,  and  he  had 
to  walk  around  with  rubber  boots  on,  half  way  to  his 
knees  in  mud.  In  a  little  while  Phillips,  who  laid  oppo 
site  to  me,  on  the  other  side  of  the  tent,  died  in  the  fore 
noon  ;  and  that  afternoon  Wheeler,  who  had  a  cot  close 
beside  mine,  also  died. 

"Not  long  after  the  order  came  to  remove  all  the  sick 
and  wounded  of  the  Ninth  Army  corps  to  Washington. 
I  was  placed  on  a  stretcher,  carried  to  the  boat,  and  laid 
on  deck.  Before  we  got  to  Washington  some  unprin 
cipled  wretch  relieved  me  of  my  watch  and  chain  and 
everything  else  I  had  in  my  pockets.  On  arriving  at 
Washington,  I  was  put  in  an  ambulance  with  another 
comrade,  and  he  died  before  we  reached  the  hospital. 
You  may  be  sure  I  was  glad  enough  when  I  got  back 
among  well  folks." 


1 862.]  CLOSING  UP  THE   YEAR.  251 

A  day  or  two  after  the  battle  a  man  of  Company  E  went 
to  the  hospital  to  visit  Barber.  He  found  eleven  men, 
nine  of  whom  had  amputated  limbs,  and  some  who 
were  wounded  in  two  or  three  places,  in  a  wall  tent  and 
tended  by  a  single  nurse,  who  was  tired  out.  Barber 
asked  his  comrade  to  stay  all  night  with  the  boys.  He 
obtained  leave,  and  was  soon  installed  as  nurse  for  the 
night.  It  was  a  new  and  trying  experience,  and  he  was 
kept  busy  bathing  wounds,  administering  cordials,  and 
waiting  in  various  ways  upon  the  men.  It  was  a  cold, 
frosty  night,  and  with  one  exception  the  men  lay  upon  the 
ground,  with  a  little  straw  under  them  but  no  covering 
over  them.  One  of  the  men  had  a  half  blanket  merely. 
About  seven  o'clock  the  surgeon  in  charge  came  around, 
looked  at  the  wounds,  gave  orders  for  the  night,  counted 
the  men,  and  said, — "  Nurse,  in  an  hour  come  to  my  quar 
ters  and  get  ten  blankets  for  these  men."  As  the  nurse 

O 

started  after  them,  the  man  with  a  half  blanket  said, — 
"You  get  one  for  me  if  you  can."  "I'll  see  what  I 
can  do,"  he  replied.  At  the  surgeon's  tent,  the  surgeon 
asked,  "How  many  blankets  were  you  to  have,  my 
man?"  "There  are  eleven  men  in  my  tent,  sir,"  he 
replied.  "  Steward,  count  out  this  man  eleven  blankets," 
the  doctor  said.  So  one  for  every  man  was  carried 
back,  and  that  nurse's  reputation  for  efficiency  was  well 
established. 

Another  comrade  contributes  this  incident : 

"While  we  were  crossing  the  plain  back  of  Fredericks- 
burg,  before  we  reached  the  railroad, — which  I  could  see 
plainly,  being  slightly  in  the  rear  as  stretcher-bearer, — 
there  was  one  man  who  was  putting  in  the  steps  for  all 
he  was  worth.  He  was  a  lieutenant,  coming,  I  think, 
from  Newport,  and  was  the  smallest  man  in  the  regi- 


252  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [December, 

ment.  We  were  going  it  on  the  double-quick,  and  the 
best  he  could  do,  he  could  not  quite  keep  up.  All  at 
once  a  shot  from  a  cannon  came  skipping  along  the 
ground,  so  near  him  that  the  wind  of  it  sent  him  head 
over  heels  for  several  feet  (it  seemed  to  me  to  be  rods), 
before  he  finally  came  to  a  stop.  I  thought  sure  he  must 
be  hurt,  but  he  jumped  up,  and  having  gained  on  the 
regiment  by  the  help  of  the  ball,  turned  round  to  his  com 
mand  and  shouted  sharply,  <  Close  up  there  ! '  Oh,  he 
was  a  cool  one,  if  he  was  little." 

From  the  diary  of  the  lamented  Captain  Alexander 
comes  this  graphic  picture  of  a  night  on  the  picket : 

-ALONG    THE    RAPPAHANNOCK." 

We  had  just  got  our  tent  fixed  so  we  could  sleep  com 
fortably  to-night — having  carried  boards  on  my  back 
nearly  a  half  mile — when  the  adjutant  came  to  the  tent 
and  gave  me  the  unwelcome  intelligence  that  my  com 
pany  and  Company  I  were  detailed  to  go  on  picket 
along  the  Rappahannock,  both  companies  being  under 
my  command.  So  we  packed  our  tents,  rolled  up  our 
blankets,  and  trudged  along  through  the  mud,  almost  to 
our  knees,  to  the  river-bank. 

We  were  to  picket  the  river  above  the  bridge.  Before 
we  got  our  pickets  stationed,  darkness  was  upon  us. 
The  rebel  pickets  could  be  plainly  seen,  sitting  beside 
their  fires,  within  musket  range.  .  .  .  Tired,  hun 
gry,  and  wet  to  the  skin, — after  having  travelled  over 
the  whole  distance  twice  to  station  the  pickets  and  give 
them  instructions, — I  seated  myself  on  the  wet  ground, 
beside  a  few  embers  left  by  the  pickets  we  relieved,  to 
pass  the  weary  night. 


1 862.]  CLOSING  UP  THE   YEAR.  253 

Thank  God,  morning  has  once  more  dawned  upon  us, 
though  still  raining  and  the  wind  blowing.  I  hail  the 
break  of  day  with  delight,  for  such  a  long,  cold,  rainy, 
wearisome  night  I  never  experienced.  .  .  .  Once 
during  the  night  I  walked  the  length  of  the  pickets  to 
see  that  all  was  right,  but  at  no  time  did  sleep  visit  my 
eyelids.  .  .  .  We  were  not  relieved  till  after  dark. 
The  regiment  had  moved  during  the  day  some  two  miles 
back  from  the  river,  so  for  almost  three  miles,  through 
mud  and  water,  we  trudged  along,  and  tired  and  hungry 
arrived  in  camp  about  9  p.  m. 


CARRYING   THE    COLORS. 

Sergeant  Dinsmore  was  the  original  bearer  of  the 
National  colors,  but  at  Fredericksburg,  while  the  regi 
ment  was  moving  forward  to  attack  the  enemy's  lines,  a 
piece  of  shell  struck  Dinsmore  in  the  left  breast,  and  he 
fell,  mortally  wounded,  carrying  the  colors  with  him  to 
the  ground.  Without  a  moment's  delay  Capt.  C.  D. 
Copp,  then  second  lieutenant  of  the  color  company, 
sprang  quickly  to  the  front,  drew  the  colors  from  under 
his  fallen  comrade,  and  calling  out,  "  Forward,  boys, 
forward  !"  led  the  regiment  through  that  terrible  storm 
of  shot,  shell,  and  leaden  hail,  carrying  them  as  far  for 
ward  as  the  regiment  went  on  that  field.  For  this  act 
Captain  Copp  was  awarded  the  "Medal  of  Honor  "  which 
by  an  act  of  congress  is  given  to  all  soldiers  who  dis 
tinguish  themselves  by  any  deed  of  special  bravery. 

The  next  morning,  at  roll-call,  Captain  Stone  called 
for  some  sergeant  to  volunteer  to  carry  the  colors.  The 
regiment  had  been  so  much  reduced  that  only  one  or  two 
sergeants  were  left  in  the  color  company,  and  as  no  one 


254  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [December, 

seemed  anxious  for  the  dangerous  position,  Captain 
Stone  again  called  out,  "Is  there  any  private  who  will 
volunteer  to  take  the  colors?"  James  B.  Prendable  was 
a  brave  fellow,  though  a  little  slow  of  speech,  but  he 
finally  managed  to  stammer  out,  "  I-I-I  ?11  t-take  them, 
Ca-Captain,  and  ca-ca-carry  them  t-till  I  fall !"  He  was 
promoted  to  be  color  sergeant,  and  carried  the  colors 
until  he,  too,  was  wounded  on  the  field  at  Spottsylvania. 


COLOR-BEARER  JAMES  PRENDABLE,  Co.  F.  GEORGE  W.  MORTON,  Co.  F. 


CHARLES  W.  UNDERBILL,  Co.  F. 


ROSCOE  B.  KIDDER,  Co.  F. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 
FALMOUTH,  NEWPORT  NEWS,  AND  KENTUCKY. 

January  26,  1863,  General  Burnside  transferred  the 
command  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  to  Major-General 
Joseph  Hooker.  No  general  movement  of  the  army  had 
been  made  since  the  abortive  attempt  to  dislodge  the 
Confederate  forces  at  Fredericksburg.  During  the  last 
days  of  December  a  cavalry  raid  under  General  Averill 
around  the  enemy's  left  had  been  auspiciously  begun, 
and  was  to  have  been  supplemented  by  a  general  move 
ment  along  his  front  and  right  flank,  but  positive  orders 
from  Washington  prevented  the  successful  accomplish 
ment  of  the  commanding  general's  plans. 

On  the  2oth  of  January  a  movement  across  the  Rap- 
pahannock  at  Banks's  ford  was  inaugurated,  but  was 
foiled  by  a  furious  rain-storm,  which  rendered  the  roads 
absolutely  impassable.  Even  the  march  back  to  Fal- 
mouth  was  made  with  extreme  difficulty.  Burnside, 
whose  plans  had  now  been  thwarted  for  the  third  time, 
tendered  his  resignation  as  major-general  of  volunteers  ; 
but  the  president  refused  to  accept  it,  preferring  to  relieve 
him  of  the  command  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac,  and  to 
retain  his  services  for  use  in  other  fields. 

The  order  relieving  Burnside  arrived  on  the  25th,  he 
turned  the  command  over  to  Hooker  on  the  26th,  and 
immediately  proceeded  to  Providence.  After  a  few 
weeks  rest  he  was  appointed  to  the  command  of  the 


256  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [March, 

Department  of  the  Ohio,  with  head-quarters  at  Cincin 
nati.  This  department  comprised  the  states  of  Ohio, 
Indiana,  Illinois,  Michigan,  and  eastern  Kentucky. 
General  Burnside  reached  Cincinnati  March  23,  and 
assumed  command  on  the  25th.  The  Confederate  gen 
eral  Pegram  was  devastating  central  Kentucky  almost 
without  opposition,  and  the  need  of  re-enforcements  to 
the  unattached  Federal  regiments  in  Burnside's  depart 
ment  was  manifest.  On  his  request  the  two  divisions  of 
the  Ninth  corps  commanded  by  Generals  Willcox  and 
Sturgis  were  transferred  to  the  Department  of  the  Ohio, 
from  Newport  News,  whither  they  had  been  sent  from 
Falmouth  on  February  10. 

General  Sturgis  was  relieved  of  his  command  on  the 
departure  of  the  division  from  Newport  News,  and 
Gen.  Robert  B.  Potter,  formerly  colonel  of  the  Fifty- 
first  New  York,  was  assigned  to  the  position.  On 
March  13,  1863,  Colonel  Potter  was  promoted  to  be 
brigadier-general.  Getty's  division  (formerly  Rod 
man's)  was  detached  from  its  corps  at  Newport  News 
and  ordered  to  Suffolk,  where  the  enemy  was  threat 
ening  the  Federal  works.  This  division  as  a  complete 
command  never  afterwards  rejoined  the  Ninth  corps, 
but  the  detached  regiments  never  forgot  their  former 
comrades,  and  though  transferred  to  other  commands 
their  tents  still  bore  the  initials  "9th  A.  C.,"  by  which 
thev  were  proud  to  be  known. 

General  Burnside's  affection  for  the  officers  and  men 
who  were  attached  to  the  Ninth  corps  never  lessened. 
In  his  general  order  taking  leave  of  the  Army  of  the 
Potomac  he  said, — "The  commanding  general,  in  tak 
ing  an  affectionate  leave  of  the  entire  army,  from  which 
he  separates  with  much  regret,  may  be  pardoned  if  he 


1863.]  FALMOUTH  TO  KENTUCKY. 

bids  an  especial  farewell  to  his  long-tried  associates  of 
the  Ninth  corps.  His  prayers  are  that  God  may  be  with 
you,  and  grant  you  continual  success  until  the  Rebellion 
be  crushed." 

The  corps  in  Kentucky  was  once  more  under  its 
beloved  Burnside,  but  since  his  advancement  from  its 
special  direction  to  more  extended  duties  many  changes 
in  corps  commanders  had  occurred.  Following  General 
Burnside  came  Maj.  Gen.  Jesse  L.  Reno,  who  was  killed 
at  South  Mountain,  September  14,  1862.  General  Reno 
was  succeeded  by  Gen.  Jacob  D,  Cox,  who  did  such 
good  service  at  Antietam ;  but  on  October  7,  1862, 
General  Cox,  with  his  famous  Kanawha  division,  was 
ordered  to  West  Virginia.  Brig.  Gen.  Orlando  B.  Will- 
cox  was  then  assigned  to  the  command  of  the  corps, 
Brig.  Gen.  W.  W.  Burns  taking  charge  of  General  Will- 
cox's  division,  and  Brig.  Gen.  G.  W..  Getty  that  of  the 
gallant  Rodman,  who  fell  at  Antietam. 

General  Willcox  retained  the  command  through  the 
Battle  of  Fredericksburg,  where  his  services  were  mani 
fold  and  highly  meritorious,  and  until  just  before  Gen 
eral  Burnside  left  the  Army  of  the  Potomac,  when  Maj. 
Gen.  John  Sedgwick  succeeded  General  Willcox,  and 
the  latter  returned  to  his  division.  February  5,  1863, 
General  Sedgwick  was  transferred  to  the  Sixth  corps, 
and  Maj.  Gen.  William  F.  Smith  was  assigned  to  the 
Ninth.  In  March,  1863,  Smith  was  succeeded  by  Maj. 
Gen.  John  G.  Parke,  an  old  companion-in-arms,  who  had 
been  General  Burnside's  chief  of  staff  when  the  latter 
commanded  the  corps  and  also  when  he  directed  the 

Army  of  the  Potomac. 

***** 

During    the    winter     at    Falmouth,    until    the    corps 

XVI 


258  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [January, 

removed  to  Newport  News,  the  Ninth  regiment  had  suf 
fered  severely  from  sickness.  Not  expecting  to  remain 
for  a  long  time  on  the  ground  where  they  encamped 
before  and  after  the  Battle  of  Fredericksburg,  many  of 
the  men  did  not  build  comfortable  quarters  :  and  in  a  few 
weeks  the  forests  had  been  so  completely  cleared  away, 
for  miles  in  that  vicinity,  that  it  was  almost  impossible  to 
obtain  firewood,  to  say  nothing  of  material  for  building- 
quarters.  Men  and  officers  were  alike  unaccustomed  to 
the  shifting  weather  of  a  Virginia  winter,  and  knew 
nothing  of  preparing  "  winter  quarters."  Fevers  pre 
vailed  to  an  alarming  extent,  and  the  regiment  was  also 
visited  by  measles,  and  during  the  winter  many  were 
borne  to  their  last  resting-place  beneath  Virginia  soil. 

The  new  year  opened  with  fine,  clear  weather,  much 
like  the  latter  part  of  October  in  a  more  northern  clime  : 
but  as  many  of  the.  boys  were  almost  barefoot,  and  with 
out  gloves  or  mittens,  drilling  was  pretty  cold  work  in 
the  frost  of  the  early  morning.  At  the  regular  drill  on 
New  Year's  morning,  Company  I  had  a  pleasant  sur 
prise  in  store  for  their  former  captain,  now  Lieutenant- 
Colonel  Babbitt,  they  having  clubbed  together  and  sent 
to  Washington  for  a  handsome  field  sword  and  belt  cost 
ing  thirty-five  dollars.  Sergt.  S.  H.  Perry  made  the 
presentation  speech.  The  colonel  was  taken  by  sur 
prise  that  time,  and  after  heartily  thanking  the  boys  for 
their  beautiful  and  appropriate  gift,  he  was  heard  to 
wonder  how  they  managed  to  get  it  into  camp  without 
his  knowing  about  it.  Perhaps  if  Adjutant  Chandler 
had  been  questioned  in  regard  to  the  matter  the  colonel 
would  have  found  out  how  it  was  done. 

Outside  the  ordinary  routine  of  duty  the  camp  was  very 
quiet,  the  men  spending  most  of  their  time  in  the  shelter 


1863.]  FALMOUTH  TO  KENTUCKY.  259 

of  their  thin  cotton  tents  ;  while  the  few  who  had  been  for 
tunate  enough  to  have  secured  log  huts  for  themselves, 
could  indulge  in  the  luxury  of  a  fire  in  a  mud  fire-place 
with  a  barrel  for  a  chimney,  provided  they  were  willing 
to  cut  the  wood  and  then  "  back  "  it  for  a  mile  or  more 
to  camp.  It  is  not  strange  that  the  majority  of  the 
soldiers  were  suffering  from  colds  and  sore  throats,  and 
that  the  hospital  steward  was  overrun  with  applications 
for  "  syrup  of  squills." 

Quartermaster  Moses  was  absent  from  camp  that  New 
Year's  day  on  a  very  pleasant  duty,  for  word  had  come 
from  Washington  that  a  number  of  boxes  for  the  Ninth 
New  Hampshire  boys  had  been  forwarded  from  that 
point  to  Aquia  Creek.  When  the  quartermaster  ar 
rived  with  his  precious  treasures  the  following  day,' 
you  would  have  thought  a  Fourth  of  July  celebration 
was  going  on  in  camp,  so  great  was  the  uproar  of 
rejoicing.  Only  those  who  have  suffered  from  cold  and 
hunger  can  understand  what  warm  clothing  and  some 
of  "  mother's  cooking  "  meant  to  the  boys  at  that  time. 

The  night  of  January  3  was  spent  by  the  regiment  on 
picket,  and  they  had  but  just  got  back  to  camp  the  next 
morning  when  they  were  ordered  out  again  for  inspection. 
44  Not  very  many  left  to  inspect!"  was  the  comment, 
and  what  with  the  wounded  and  the  sick,  the  ranks  were 
indeed  thin.  A  day  or  two  later  they  were  out  again, 
this  time  participating  in  a  grand  review  of  the  corps 
by  General  Burnside,  though  a  sudden  shower  rather 
spoiled  the  effect  and  sent  the  men  to  their  quarters  on 
the  "  double-quick." 

Rainy  weather  was  dreaded  by  the  soldiers  perhaps 
the  worst  of  all,  for  it  was  impossible  to  keep  dry  in 
their  tents,  and  a  long  or  severe  storm  would  make  the 


2 60  NINTH  NE  W  HAMPSHIRE.  [ J a n  u ary , 

44  floor  "  of  the  tightest  hut  a  regular  mud-puddle.  One 
day  would  be  as  warm  and  mild  as  in  the  early  spring, 
and  the  men  would  be  out  on  drill  for  two  or  three  hours 
at  a  time,  without  a  thought  of  being  cold  ;  and  perhaps 
the  very  next  day  would  come  a  driving  storm,  and  they 
would  crouch,  shivering,  in  their  tents  till  the  sun  shone 
again.  So  it  was  that  one  after  another  fell  victims  to 
the  prevalent  maladies,  and  were  borne  to  the  hospital. 

About  once  in  four  days  the  regiment  did  picket  duty, 
and  drills  were  varied  by  a  detail  to  cut  wood,  which 
now  had  to  be  hauled  by  teams  two  or  three  miles. 
There  was  enough  to  eat — such  as  it  was — but  the  con 
dition  of  the  men,  as  a  whole,  was  truly  deplorable.  It 
didn't  help  matters  any,  either,  to  read  in  the  papers 
that  the  soldiers  were  supplied  with  everything  to  make 
them  comfortable.  Only  the  men  themselves  knew  what 
they  suffered.  The  news  correspondents  and  commis 
sioners,  who  occasionally  visited  the  camp,  seldom 
extended  their  investigations  beyond  head-quarters. 
Had  they  endured  what  these  soldier-boys  of  ours  had — 
march  till  ten  o'clock  at  night,  then  pitch  tents  that  were 
frozen  stiff,  eat  a  supper  of  hard-tack  and  raw  pork,  and 
turn  in  with  the  ground  covered  with  snow  and  the  mer 
cury  below  the  freezing-point ;  bivouac  in  the  open 
streets  under  the  enemy's  guns,  and  march  across  an 
open  plain  in  the  face  of  almost  certain  death;  or,  least 
endurable  of  all,  live,  or  rather  exist,  for  weeks  in  a 
literal  mud-hole,  such  as  a  Northerner  would  go  around 
rather  than  through,  even  if  provided  with  rubber  boots 
— had  they  done  all  these  things,  suffered  all  these  things, 
then  indeed  could  they  have  furnished  their  papers  with 
"  startling  intelligence." 


1863.]  FALMOUTH  TO  KENTUCKY.  261 

January  16  orders  were  received  to  have  the  men 
ready  to  move  on  the  following  day,  with  three  days 
rations.  Any  change  from  their  present  quarters  was 
welcome,  and  preparations  were  made  with  alacrity.  But 
it  proved  to  be  a  false  alarm,  and  again  the  monotonous 
regime  held  sway.  At  this  time  nearly  all  the  provisions 
were  issued  raw,  the  men  making  their  own  coffee  and 
doing  their  cooking,  except  the  weekly  dish  of  beans  and 
rice,  and  many  were  the  devices  adopted  to  enlarge  upon 
their  somewhat  limited  bill  of  fare. 

Occasionally  a  little  flour  was  to  be  had,  and  this  was 
made  into  a  kind  of  pudding,  and  one  of  the  boys  essay 
ed  some  biscuits  even.  While  in  Fredericksburg  he  had 
secured  a  large  package  of  what  he  took  to  be  saleratus, 
and  his  plan  was  to  use  some  vinegar  with  this  to  pro 
duce  the  coveted  leavening  power;  but  the  saleratus, 
instead  of  dissolving  when  mixed  with  the  vinegar, 
speedily  hardened  into  a  small  cake,  for  it  happened  to 
be  plaster  of  paris.  So  that  scheme  came  to  naught ; 
but  our  hero  was  not  a  whit  discouraged,  and  with  lye, 
manufactured  from  the  ashes  in  the  fire-place,  he  tried 
his  luck  again  ;  and  this  time  succeeded  in  getting  some 
veritable  biscuits,  light  and  sweet,  though  it  must  be 
confessed  they  were  just  a  trifle  tough. 

Another  favorite  dish  was  slices  of  fat  pork  fried  out, 
and  the  gravy  thickened  with  a  little  flour  or  meal,  while 
a  bit  of  apple-sauce  was  a  wonderful  lubricator  in  getting 
down  the  flinty  hard-tack.  Hoe-cakes  baked  in  the 
ashes  were  not  beyond  the  veriest  tyro,  and  the  men  vied 
with  each  other  as  to  who  could  serve  up  the  greatest 
variety.  Certainly  they  were  none  the  worse  for  these 
diversions,  and  were  far  happier  than  if  the  time  had 
been  spent  in  brooding  over  their  misfortunes. 


262  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [January, 

Active  operations  commenced  again  on  the  2Oth.  Hook 
er's  and  Franklin's  divisions  were  to  have  the  advance, 
and  accordingly  broke  camp  that  day,  while  the  rest  of 
the  army  was  ordered  to  be  ready  to  move  on  the  follow 
ing  morning.  That  night,  however,  a  violent  rain-storm 
set  in,  continuing  all  that  day  and  the  next,  and  render 
ing  the  roads  wholly  impassable.  It  was  bad  enough 
for  those  who  were  left  in  camp,  for  every  tent  was 
flooded,  and  it  was  impossible  to  use  the  teams  for  get 
ting  wood  ;  but  the  sufferings  of  those  who  were  exposed 
to  the  fury  of  the  elements  without  any  shelter  whatever, 
were  simply  beyond  description. 

The  rain  ceased  towards  night  on  the  23d,  and  through 
oceans  of  mud  Hooker's  and  Franklin's  commands 
wearily  waded  their  way  back  to  the  old  camping- 
ground,  though  it  was  only  by  the  combined  strength  of 
horses  and  men  that  the  batteries  of  artillery  were 
restored  to  their  former  quarters.  It  was  plain  that  no 
further  move  could  be  attempted  at  present,  the  number 
of  sick  ones  increased  daily,  and  a  sort  of  dull  despair 
settled  down  upon  the  camp. 

There  were  still  a  large  number  of  cases  of  the 
measles,  and  Sergt.  C.  W.  Wilcox  had  the  genuine 
"  black"  measles.  As  soon  as  a  man  was  over  the  worst 
of  the  disease  he  was  sent  back  to  his  tent,  to  make 
room  for  some  other  unfortunate,  and  there  were  several 
deaths  resulting  from  the  increased  exposure,  which  told 
heavily  upon  the  already  weakened  constitutions.  It 
was  all  that  could  be  done,  though  it  did  seem  cruel ;  but 
when  one  thinks  of  caring  for  eight  thousand  patients, 
which  was  the  largest  number  that  could  be  accommo 
dated  in  the  field  and  general  hospital,  besides  the  many 
that  were  sick  in  the  tents,  some  idea  of  the  amount  of 


1863.]  FALMOUTH  TO  KENTUCKY.  263 

suffering  there  was  among  the  soldiers  at  this  time  can 
be  obtained. 

Colonel  Titus,  who  had  been  absent  on  sick  leave  since 
he  was  so  severely  wounded  at  the  Battle  of  Antietam, 
returned  to  duty  January  31,  and  received  a  hearty  wel 
come.  Four  months  only  had  intervened,  but  the  regi 
ment  which  had  numbered  close  to  a  thousand  men  on 
that  pleasant  September  afternoon  now  had  less  than 
four  hundred  men  in  the  ranks. 

The  first  week  in  February  it  stormed  every  day,  and 
still  one  cheery  soul  wrote  home  from  his  quarters  in  the 
hospital, — 4'I  have  sat  up  a  good  deal  to-day,  and  what 
do  you  think  is  the  reason  of  it?  Thank  God,  my  box 
came  this  afternoon,  safe  and  sound,  or  nearly  so.  The 
boys  brought  it  in  to  me,  and  helped  open  it,  together 
with  Lieutenant  Green's.  They  all  thought  it  the  nicest 
box  of  stuff  they  had  seen.  The  dried  apples  and  butter 
made  their  eyes  hang  right  out." 

Another  letter  reads, — "  I  am  in  great  need  of  my  coat, 
as  my  old  one  has  given  out  round  the  armpits  and  the  but 
ton-holes  are  nearly  torn  out.  When  I  came  out  here  I 
did  n't  have  a  single  ragged  thing,  but  now  I  am  all  rags. 
The  boots  we  get  here  are  miserable  affairs,  and  I  want 

N to  get  me  up  a  good  pair.  Send  them  by  mail 

and  mark  them  '  Soldier's  Comforts,'  and  they  will  come 
for  a  cent  an  ounce." 

On  the  6th  orders  were  issued  for  the  sending  to  Wash 
ington  of  the  sick,  and  for  the  command  to  be  ready  to 
move  at  a  moment's  notice,  though  the  Ninth  went  on 
picket  duty  that  morning  and  was  not  relieved  till  three 
o'clock  the  next  afternoon.  When  Captain  Stone  ordered 
out  Company  F  only  twenty-three  men  responded  to  the 
call.  It  was  their  last  picket  tour  on  the  Rappahannock, 


264  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [February, 

for  when  they  got  back  to  camp  they  found  that  the  sick 
were  on  their  way  to  Washington,  and  that  they  them 
selves  were  to  leave  on  the  morrow. 

On  the  morning  of  February  9  the  camp  on  the  Rap- 
pahannock  was  astir  at  an  early  hour,  and  it  was  with 
light  hearts  that  the  men  made  ready  for  their  departure 
from  this  "  Slough  of  Despond"  which  had  claimed  so 
many  hapeless  victims — ''martyrs  in  their  country's 
cause."  On  arriving  at  the  station  there  was  consider 
able  delay  before  the  cars  were  boarded  and  the  journey 
to  Aquia  Creek  was  begun.  It  was  nearly  dark  when 
the  long  train  finally  came  to  a  standstill,  but  by  eight 
o'clock  the  Ninth  New  Hampshire  was  on  board  the 
transport  Columbia^  and  the  weary  travellers,  snugly 
wrapped  in  their  blankets,  were  ready  for  the  "sweet 
restorer"  to  commence  his  wonted  labors. 

The  morning  dawned,  bright,  warm,  and  clear,  and 
about  ten  o'clock  the  Columbia  weighed  anchor,  and  in 
company  with  the  Metamora  and  yuniata  steamed  down 
the  stream.  These  transports  had  on  board  the  troops  of 
the  brigade,  and  were  followed  by  several  schooners 
which  were  conveying  the  trains  and  heavy  baggage. 
Many  of  the  men  remained  on  deck  the  greater  portion 
of  the  day,  watching  the  numerous  craft  on  the  broad 
bosom  of  the  Potomac,  or  trying  to  get  interested  in  the 
rather  monotonous  scenery  along  the  banks  of  that  noble 
stream. 

Perhaps  the  most  novel  scene  of  the  day  was  that 
afforded  by  three  tugs,  puffing  and  snorting  along 
against  the  current,  towing  no  less  than  forty  barges 
laden  with  hay.  These  were  fastened  together  four 
abreast,  and  formed  an  imposing  load  for  the  three  little 
sea  ponies  to  which  they  were  attached.  During  the 


1863-]  FALMOUTH  TO  KENTUCKY.  265 

middle  of  the  day  the  sun  shone  out  so  warmly  as  to  be 
quite  oppressive,  and  this  to  Northern-bred  men  seemed 
not  a  little  remarkable,  remembering,  as  they  did,  that 
up  in  the  old  Granite  state  the  snow  would  be  lying 
white  and  thick  on  hill-top  and  valley. 


NEWPORT    NEWS    TO    CINCINNATI. 

The  morning  sunlight  was  gilding  the  scene  when  the 
Ninth  New  Hampshire  boys  roused  themselves  sufficiently 
to  look  about  them.  The  boat  was  anchored  in  Hampton 
Roads,  and  on  all  sides  were  vessels  of  every  descrip 
tion,  their  white  sails  gleaming  in  the  bright  sunlight  and 
their  colors  dipping  in  the  fresh  breeze.  Close  at  hand 
rose  the  grim-looking  walls  of  Fortress  Monroe,  its  black- 
mouthed  cannon,  with  those  of  the  Rip-Raps  just  across 
the  channel,  threatening  with  mute  defiance  the  foe  who 
should  dare  to  venture  within  their  reach. 

It  was  not  long  before  orders  were  received  to  proceed 
at  once  to  Newport  News,  and  it  was  nearly  noon  when 
the  boat  dropped  anchor  near  the  landing.  The  Ninth 
came  ashore  during  the  afternoon,  and  went  into  camp 
on  a  dry,  sandy  plain  about  a  half  mile  from  the  landing, 
with  an  abundance  of  wood  and  water  close  at  hand. 

What  an  immense  relief  was  the  change  to  their  pres 
ent  situation  from  the  mud  and  filth  of  Falmouth  !  The 
men  set  about  the  arrangements  for  their  new  homes  with 
light  hearts  and  willing  hands,  their  quarters  soon  boast 
ing  of  bunks,  fire-places,  and  in  fact  all  the  modern  con 
veniences  their  Yankee  ingenuity^  could  devise.  The 
weather  was  delightful,  and  plenty  of  soft  bread  and 
other  good  things  to  which  they  had  long  been  stran 
gers  were  provided  in  abundance.  Oysters  of  the  very 


266  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [March, 

best  quality  could  be  bought  for  a  dollar  a  bushel  in  the 
shell,  and  were  an  appetizing  addition  to  the  bill  of  fare. 
So,  with  the  help  of  an  occasional  box  of  "  goodies"  from 
home  friends,  the  men  contrived  to  exist  very  comfort 
ably,  and  life  took  on  a  somewhat  brighter  hue. 

As  soon  as  they  had  become  fairly  well  settled  in  their 
new  quarters,  Colonel  Titus  instituted  daily  drills  again; 
but  as  he  was  an  excellent  disciplinarian,  and  withal 
popular  with  the  men,  they  did  not  regard  their  duties  as 
especially  irksome,  and  were  very  proud  of  their  effi 
ciency,  when,  in  the  latter  part  of  February,  the  Ninth 
corps  was  reviewed  by  Generals  Dix  and  Smith.  What 
was  to  become  of  them  when  the  spring  campaign 
opened,  was  a  question  that  troubled  them  very  little  at 
this  time.  The  prevailing  opinion  seemed  to  be  that 
Hooker  would  proceed  to  attack  Lee  as  soon  as  the 
roads  became  passable  for  the  artillery,  and  it  was 
thought  that  the  Ninth  corps  would  be  sent  farther  south. 
But  "  Sufficient  unto  the  day  is  the  evil  thereof,"  had 
long  been  the  motto  of  the  Ninth  New  Hampshire,  and 
they  proposed  to  enjoy  their  present  advantages  to  the 
utmost  while  they  lasted. 

So  the  days  slipped  by,  in  unvaried,  though  pleasant, 
monotony,  and  on  March  25  the  long  expected  orders 
arrived.  The  six-weeks  rest  under  favorable  conditions 
had  greatly  improved  the  general  health  of  the  men,  and 
they  were  in  far  better  shape  for  an  active  campaign  than 
when  they  left  Falrnouth.  It  was  not  without  regret  that 
they  left  their  pleasant  camp  on  the  James,  yet  once  on 
board  the  steamer  Crpton,  that  was  to  carry  them  up  the 
Chesapeake  to  Baltimore,  three  hearty  cheers  rent  the 
air  as  the  steamer  cast  her  moorings  and  the  Ninth  New 
Hampshire  was  once  more  en  route. 


1863.]  FALMOUTH   TO  KENTUCKY.  267 

Baltimore  was  reached  on  the  afternoon  of  the  26th, 
and  having  marched  across  the  city,  the  regiment 
boarded  the  cars.  It  was  nearly  dark  when  the  train 
started  on  its  way  to  Harrisburg,  and  when  York  was 
reached,  towards  eleven  o'clock,  a  stop  of  about  an  hour 
was  made,  while  rations  and  hot  coffee  were  issued  to 
the  men,  who  had  had  nothing  to  eat  for  thirty-six  hours. 
The  pie  and  apple  girls  were  out  in  full  force,  and  the 
boys  invested  their  spare  change  in  a  liberal  supply  of 
these  delectables.  When  daylight  dawned,  the  train  was 
passing  up  the  valley  of  the  Susquehanna,  and  soon 
after  came  to  a  stop  in  the  pleasant  city  of  Harrisburg. 
Here  the  train  was  switched  onto  the  Pennsylvania 
Central  road,  and  pushed  steadily  on  for  Pittsburg,  two 
hundred  and  fifty  miles  away.  At  Altoona  and  Patter 
son  short  stops  were  made,  and  hot  coffee  was  served  to 
the  men  through  the  kindly  forethought  of  General 
Burnside,  who  had  preceded  them  on  the  journey. 

The  train  steamed  into  the  "  Iron  city"  a  little  before 
midnight  on  the  27th,  and  the  men  were  glad  to  ."  unkink 
the  knots"  by  a  short  march  to  the  city  hall,  wrhere  the 
kind-hearted  women  had  prepared  a  bountiful  repast  for 
the  hungry  and  wearied  soldiers.  Having  done  ample 
justice  to  the  good  things,  and  given  three  rousing 
cheers  for  the  fair  donors,  the  return  march  to  the  station 
was  made,  where,  stowing  themselves  away  in  con 
venient  corners,  the  men  devoted  the  remaining  hours  of 
the  night  to  such  sleep  as  it  was  possible  to  obtain. 

At  an  early  hour  the  journey  was  resumed,  this  time 
over  the  Ohio  Central.  The  day  passed  uneventfully, 
and  the  men  were  too  tired  and  sleepy  to  pay  much 
attention  to  their  surroundings.  Only  one  stop  was  made 
before  reaching  Columbus,  where  they  arrived  late  in 


268  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [March. 

the  night.  Soon  after  daylight  they  were  again  on  the 
way,  and  at  three  o'clock  in  the  afternoon  of  Sunday, 
March  29,  the  train  came  to  a  standstill  in  the  city  of 
Cincinnati,  Ohio. 

Only  a  few  minutes  were  required  to  clear  the  cars  of 
their  living  freight,  and  the  men  needed  no  urging  to 
fall  into  a  "double-quick"  for  the  short  march  to  the 
Fifth-street  market,  where  a  good  dinner  was  waiting 
for  them.  Arms  were  quickly  stacked  in  the  street,  and 
the  men  fell  to  with  alacrity  after  their  long  fast.  This 
pleasant  duty  being  satisfactorily  accomplished  and  their 
hosts  roundly  cheered,  they  started  for  the  ferry,  paus 
ing  as  they  passed  General  Burnside's  head-quarters  to 
give  him  three  cheers  and  a  "tiger."  The  river  was 
crossed,  a  train  boarded,  and  about  dark  the  regiment 
was  on  its  way  to  Lexington,  Ky.,  one  hundred  miles  to 
the  south. 


THE    BLUE    GRASS    REGION. 

Before  the  arrival  of  the  troops  from  the  East,  the 
Confederate  forces  under  General  Pegram  had  been 
driven  across  the  Cumberland  river  by  the  Union  men 
under  Generals  Gillmore  and  Boyle,  and  with  the  arrival 
of  the  two  divisions  of  the  Ninth  corps  there  came  to  the 
much-harassed  people  of  Kentucky  an  assurance  of 
security  from  further  depredations  by  their  neighbors  on 
the  south.  Yet  the  Northern  troops  were  not  received 
at  first  in  the  most  cordial  way,  for  the  Kentuckians 
were  not  much  acquainted  with  Yankees  and  were  pre 
judiced  against  them,  nor  did  they  care  to  welcome 
Abolitionists  to  their  homes.  But  the  Union  troops  had 


1863.]  FALMOUTH   TO  KENTUCKY.  269 

been  sent  there  to  foster  patriotism,  they  were  deter 
mined  that  the  Kentuckians  should  be  less  inclined  to 
rebellion  because  the  Yankees  were  in  their  midst ;  and 
it  did  not  take  the  inhabitants  a  very  long  time  to  dis 
cover  that  their  preconceived  notions  of  Northern  char 
acter  were  at  fault. 

The  Ninth  New  Hampshire  had  been  the  first  regiment 
of  the  Ninth  corps  to  enter  upon  Kentucky  soil,  and  one 
of  the  men  liked  the  climate — or  the  whiskey — so  well 
that  he  was  determined  not  to  board  the  cars  at  Coving- 
ton  with  the  rest.  In  vain  the  sergeant  besought  him  to 
go  peaceably,  and  finally  Captain  Stone  lost  his  patience. 
Seizing  the  mutinous  soldier  by  the  nape  of  the  neck 
and  the  seat  of  the  trousers,  he  pitched  him  bodily  into 
the  car. 

The  forward  car  was  occupied  by  Benjamin's  battery, 
and  they  had  managed  to  smuggle  on  board  a  consider 
able  cargo  of  Kentucky's  choicest  production,  wherewith 
they  proposed  to  regale  themselves  during  the  journey. 
The  New  Hampshire  boys  were  n't  long  in  scenting  out 
the  racket,  and  at  every  opportunity  the  canteens  were 
replenished  at  "the  Spring." 

It  was  late  in  the  afternoon  of  Monday,  the  3Oth  of 
March,  when  the  regiment  arrived  at  Lexington.  They 
marched  through  the  city  and  encamped  on  the  fair 
grounds  just  beyond.  The  next  day  the  men  set  about 
building  shanties  from  the  liberal  supply  of  boards 
afforded  by  the  furnishings  of  the  grounds,  and  having 
contrived  to  secured  straw  for  beds,  thought  themselves 
very  fortunate. 

Head-quarters  were  established  in  a  beautiful  house 
which  had  been  the  home  of  an  officer  in  the  Confederate 
service,  and  Colonel  Titus  and  Adjutant  Chandler 


270  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [April, 

received  their  visitors  and  did  business  in  an  elegant 
parlor  decked  out  with  long  mirrors,  marble-topped 
tables,  and  the  like.  The  regular  camp  routine  was  at 
once  entered  upon,  the  first  inspection  and  dress  parade 
at  Camp  Ella  Bishop  being  held  on  April  i. 

The  removal  from  the  sterile,  worn-out,  unhospitable 
tobacco  lands  of  Virginia  to  the  fertile,  health-giving, 
corn-  and  wheat-fields  in  the  Blue  Grass  region  of  Ken- 
tuckv,  was  like  a  translation  to  another  sphere.  The 
sunken  eyes  grew  bright,  the  sallow  cheeks  took  on  the 
glow  of  returning  health,  and  the  weakened  and  debili 
tated  systems  received  new  life  and  vigor.  The  men 
greatly  enjoyed  their  new  quarters,  but  it  seemed  to  be 
their  fate  that  the  more  comfortable  the  place  the  shorter 
was  the  stay.  Just  at  dusk  on  the  yth  of  April  an  order 
was  received  moving  the  camp  to  Winchester,  a  small 
town  about  twenty  miles  distant. 

By  seven  o'clock  on  the  following  morning  the  tents 
were  struck,  and  the  regiment  was  once  more  on  the 
move.  The  march  was  a  wearisome  one,  over  the  hard 
pikes  with  their  attendant  clouds  of  dust,  but  when  Win 
chester  was  reached  the  regiment  was  given  a  pleasant 
camping-ground  in  an  old  pasture  on  top  of  a  hill  about 
two  miles  out  from  the  town.  The  hill  was  well  wooded 
with  large  oak  and  walnut  trees,  and  the  boys  had  gay 
times  running  gray  squirrels.  As  many  as  fifty  or  a 
hundred  soldiers  would  be  after  one  poor  squirrel,  and 
the  one  who  succeeded  in  catching  the  plucky  and  agile 
game,  who  had  no  chance  to  climb  a  tree  and  could  only 
dodge  around  the  feet  of  its  pursuers,  was  the  hero  of  the 
chase,  and  usually  lost  no  time  in  converting  his  prize 
into  a  savory  soup. 


1863.]  FALMOUTH   TO  KENTUCKY. 

The  regiment  was  paid  oft'  on  the  i2th,  and  the  boys 
found  plenty  of  chances  to  invest  their  spare  change. 
Provisions  were  plenty  and  cheap,  but  the  natives  had 
little  idea  of  the  worth  of  one  article  in  comparison  with 
another,  as  a  Yankee  would  reckon  it,  and  contented 
themselves  with  asking  for  each  as  high  a  figure  as  they 
thought  the  customer  would  give,  though  with  utter  dis 
regard  of  the  relative  value.  A  colored  man  came  into 
camp  one  day  with  two  baskets, — one  of  baked  chickens 
and  the  other  of  hoe-cakes.  "  How  much  do  you  ask 
for  your  chickens,  Uncle?"  called  out  a  soldier.  "  Jess 
a  quartah,  Massa,"  was  the  answer,  and  at  that  figure 
the  contents  of  the  first  basket  were  quickly  disposed  of. 
The  old  darkey,  elated  at  his  success,  then  produced  his 
hoe-cakes,  and  was  greatly  surprised  that  they  found  no 
purchasers  at  fifty  cents  apiece. 

Occasionally  the  boys  would  save  up  their  coffee  and 
barter  it  for  provisions.  One  day  when  a  woman  came 
into  camp  to  trade,  the  only  coffee  on  hand  was  already 
burned  for  grinding,  and  she  refused  to  take  it  except  at 
a  discount.  In  vain  the  cook  tried  to  convince  her  that 
as  she  bought  by  weight  it  was  all  in  her  favor — "he 
could  n't  stuff  that  down  her  craw,  for  she  knowed  burnt 
coffee  was  the  lightest." 

On  the  i6th  orders  came  for  the  regiment  to  be  ready 
to  march  at  six  o'clock  that  evening  to  Boonsboro,  about 
ten  miles  to  the  south,  in  anticipation  of  a  Confederate 
raid  at  that  point.  It  was  an  all-night  march,  and  when 
Boonsboro  was  reached,  then  the  command  was  ordered 
to  push  on  to  Richmond,  which  lay  about  twenty  miles  to 
the  west  from  Lexington.  Crossing  the  Kentucky  river 
at  Boonsboro  was  a  matter  of  time,  for  the  only  means 
available  were  several  old  mud-scows,  which  called  for 


272  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [May, 

considerable  skill  in  paddling  to  prevent  swamping  the 
ticklish  craft.  The  rest  of  the  journey  was  through 
rather  a  pleasant  part  of  the  country,  and  Richmond 
was  reached  about  noon  of  the  i8th. 

Nearly  three  weeks  were  spent  in  this  pleasant  camp,, 
and  the  usual  routine  obtained.  Fast  day  fell  on  the  3oth 
of  April,  and  the  troops  were  mustered  to  attend  divine 
service  at  head-quarters,  but  were  excused  from  other 
duties.  Orders  were  received  that  afternoon  to  be  ready 
to  march  at  daybreak  next  morning,  with  three  days 
rations  in  haversacks  and  two  of  cooked  rations  on  the 
teams.  The  camp  presented  a  lively  appearance  during 
the  evening,  for  the  soldiers  were  making  ready  for  the 
morrow,  ambulances  were  conveying  away  the  sick,  and 
supply  trains  were  bringing  in  rations.  The  cooks 
worked  nearly  all  night  boiling  meat,  and  before  dawn 
the  camp  was  alive  with  preparation.  Knapsacks  were 
hastily  packed,  an  unusually  early  breakfast  was  eaten, 
and  then  the  word  was  given  to  "do  no  more  packing 
until  further  orders." 

The  march  did  not  begin  till  Sunday,  May  3,  when  a 
start  was  made  at  seven  o'clock  in  the  morning  and  six 
teen  miles  covered,  through  a  drenching  rain,  before  a 
halt  was  called  late  in  the  afternoon  and  the  tents  were 
pitched  at  Paint  Lick.  When  the  regiment  assembled  for 
dress  parade  the  next  day,  three  important  orders  were 
promulgated, — one  from  President  Lincoln  in  regard  to  a 
lieutenant  who  was  discharged  on  account  of  expressing 
sympathy  with  the  Confederates,  one  from  Colonel  Titus 
regarding  stragglers,  and  another  forbidding  gambling. 

Near  the  camp  at  Paint  Lick  was  a  small  church, 
which  General  Nagle  used  for  brigade  head-quarters, 
and  on  May  6  the  grass-plat  in  front  of  this  church 


il 


SIMEON  A.  MASON,  Co.  I. 


CHARLES  LANG,  Co.  I. 


ALVIN  A.  BUNDV,  Co.  I. 


EDGAR  F.  WILEY,  Co.  I. 


1863.]  FALMOUTH  TO  KENTUCKY.  273 

was  the  scene  of  a  jolly  gathering.  Several  Kentucky 
ladies  called  on  the  general,  and  were  royally  enter 
tained  by  the  brigade  commander  and  his  staff.  The 
bands  played  national  airs,  and  an  orchestra  of  one  lone 
violin  summoned  the  merrymakers  to  the  grass-plat  for  a 
hop.  The  dancing  party  was  interfered  with,  however, 
by  a  brisk  shower,  which  drove  them  into  the  church  for 
shelter.  The  rain-drops  were  falling  thick  and  fast,  and 
showed  no  signs  of  lessening,  so  the  ambulances  were 
ordered  out,  the  ladies  bestowed  therein,  and,  escorted  by 
the  whole  staff,  the  visiting  belles  were  safely  returned  to 
their  homes,  while  the  band  boys  and  the  orchestra  made 
haste  to  devour  "what  grub  there  was  left." 

May  10  another  Sunday  march  was  made  to  Lancas 
ter,  some  eleven  miles  away,  the  regiment  arriving  in 
the  early  afternoon  and  pitching  their  camp  in  a  large, 
grassy  field.  The  First  brigade  was  here  joined  by  the 
Second,  just  in  time  to  share  in  the  jollification  over  the 
news  that  General  Dix's  forces  were  occupying  Rich 
mond,  Va.,  and  that  communication  with  Fredericksburg 
had  been  cut  off.  The  next  day  there  was  a  genuine 
sensation  in  camp,  a  case  of  small-pox  having  developed 
among  some  convalescent  soldiers  who  had  joined  the 
regiment  just  before  going  into  camp  at  Lexington. 

The  man  was  immediately  put  in  a  tent  in  the  woods, 
with  good  nurses  who  had  had  the  disease,  and  the  com 
pany  to  which  he  belonged  was  put  into  camp  by  itself,. 
a  quarter  of  a  mile  distant,  under  a  strong  guard.  The 
whole  regiment  was  vaccinated,  and  every  precaution 
taken  to  ward  off  the  disease.  The  poor  fellow  who 
first  had  it  died  in  four  days,  but  there  were  no  further 
indications  of  an  outbreak.  The  vaccine  matter  worked 
so  well,  and  affected  the  general  health  of  the  men  so 

XVIII 


274  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [May, 

much,  that  when  the  brigade  moved  on  the  23d  the  regi 
ment  was  in  no  condition  to  undergo  the  fatigue  of  the 
march,  and  so  they  were  left  behind,  with  orders  to  fol 
low  in  five  days. 

The  march  to  Crab  Orchard  was  made  on  the  28th, 
but  on  arriving  there  it  was  found  that  the  division  had 
again  been  broken  up,  the  Second  brigade  having  moved 
on  to  Stamford,  and  this  wras  the  beginning  of  the  grad 
ual  disintegration  which  in  the  course  of  time  wholly 
separated  the  Ninth  New  Hampshire  from  the  corps. 
Colonel  Griffin  of  the  Sixth  New  Hampshire  was  now  in 
command  of  the  First  brigade,  General  Nagle  having 
resigned  the  command  on  account  of  ill  health. 

For  two  or  three  days  part  of  the  regiment  wras 
detailed  for  picket  duty  on  the  main  pike  between  Crab 
Orchard  and  Stamford.  One  day  a  sheriff  appeared  in 
the  camp,  and  attempted  to  arrest  a  young  contraband 
who  was  acting  as  waiter  for  Lieutenant  Copp.  The 
little  fellow  set  up  the  most  piteous  cries  for  help,  and 
the  whole  camp  turned  out  to  the  rescue.  The  sheriff 
was  a  six-foot  Kentuckian,  and  with  the  help  of  his  half- 
grown  son  was  attempting  to  get  the  boy  off  without 
making  any  disturbance.  They  had  come  upon  him 
unawares,  and  having  secured  by  strategy  the  revolver 
with  which  the  boys  had  furnished  him,  evidently 
thought  they  had  made  sure  of  their  prey. 

The  darkey,  on  the  other  hand,  was  determined  not  to 
give  up  without  a  battle,  and  was  biting,  kicking,  and 
screaming  to  the  full  extent  of  his  ability.  "  O  dear  ! 
Don't!  Charlie,  Charlie,  I  say,  don't  let  me  go!" 
By  this  time  the  men  were  swarming  out  like  bees  from 
an  overturned  hive,  and  the  Kentuckian  saw  that  his 
little  game  was  up.  Without  much  opposition  he  relin- 


1863.]  FALMOUTH   TO  KENTUCKY.  275 

quished  his  hold  upon  the  boy  and  gave  up  the  pistol. 
Taking  this,  "  Sambo"  was  very  speedily  missing,  and 
probably  all  the  sheriffs  in  the  state  could  n't  have  found 
him  again  that  day.  Seeing  that  he  was  not  going  to  be 
torn  in  pieces  immediately,  the  slave-hunter's  courage 
revived,  and  he  attempted  to  fall  back  upon  his  dignity. 
"  Hold  on,  boys  !  I  am  high  sheriff  of  Lincoln  county. 
I  can  show  you  my  authority  !"  he  exclaimed,  putting  one 
hand  in  his  pocket  for  the  warrant. 

The  fact  that  he  was  high  sheriff  of  Lincoln  county 
didn't  seem  to  frighten  the  crowd  materially.  "Show 

it,  and  be  d d  !  "     "  Go  to  h — 1  with  it !  "  were  some 

of  the  replies  with  which  his  announcement  was  greeted. 
Just  then,  somebody  sung  out  "  A  rail !  "  and  "  A  rail !  " 
"A  rail!"  was  the  response  from  a  hundred  voices. 
His  honor,  the  high  sheriff  of  Lincoln  county,  did  n't 
seem  to  particularly  fancy  this  idea  of  a  rail,  and  look 
ing  very  pale  and  sheepish  began  to  edge  off  as  fast  as 
possible,  his  son  shedding  floods  of  tears  over  the  pros 
pect  of  seeing  his  paternal  relative  treated  to  a  ride  on  a 
fence-pole. 

At  this  point  the  officer  of  the  day  appeared,  and  having 
quieted  the  boys  a  little,  escorted  the  high  sheriff  of 
Lincoln  county  to  the  colonel's  tent.  The  only  comfort 
which  awaited  him  there  was  the  information  that  he 
had  no  business  in  camp  without  the  permission  of  the 
commanding  officer,  and  that  had  he  obtained  this,  he 
must  then  run  his  own  risk  of  finding  and  securing  his 
runaway  property,  though  he  would  have  been  pro 
tected  from  personal  violence.  This  course  of  action 
the  colonel,  according  to  the  strict  letter  of  the  law, 
would  be  obliged  to  take,  but  he  knew  very  well,  that 
with  the  warning  given  that  a  sheriff  was  in  the  camp, 


276  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [June, 

there  was  small  danger  of  a  contraband  ever  being 
discovered. 

This  was  by  no  means  the  only  experience  that  the 
boys  had  with  the  slave-hunters.  Adjutant  Chandler 
had  a  black  boy  about  eighteen  years  old  for  a  servant, 
whose  master  sought  repeatedly  to  find  him  in  the  camp, 
but  the  adjutant  kept  a  close  watch  and  finally  got  the 
boy  safely  away. 

Another  time,  when  Colonel  Babbitt  was  brigade 
officer  of  the  day,  Lieutenant  Perry  brought  in  a 
colored  man  who  was  not  much  darker  than  his  white- 
blooded  brethren  were  at  that  time.  He  had  run  away 
from  his  master,  and  wanted  to  go  with  the  regiment. 
The  colonel  asked  him  several  questions,  and  then  Lieu 
tenant  Perry  took  up  the  ball.  "  Did  n't  your  master 
always  use  you  well?"  "Yes,  most  always."  "Didn't 
he  give  you  plenty  to  eat?"  "Always."  "You 
always  had  good  clothes?"  "  Massa  always  gave  us 
good  clothes,  plenty  to  eat  and  drink,  and  all  that. 
Massa  always  treats  us  well."  "Why,"  said  Perry, 
"if  that's  the  case,  what  in  the  devil  did  you  want  to 
run  away  for?"  "Well,  Massa,"  said  the  slave,  "it 
you  think  that's  all  a  man  wants  in  this  world,  plenty  to 
eat  and  drink  and  good  clothes,  there's  a  vacancy  down 
where  I  came  from."  Perry  was  so  mad  he  wanted  to 
give  the  negro  a  good  thrashing,  but  Colonel  Babbitt 
told  him  he  thought  the  negro  had  answered  him  well. 

It  had  been  intended  to  use  the  troops  from  Newport 
News  in  a  movement  which  Generals  Burnside  and 
Rosecrans  were  organizing  against  the  Confederates  in 
East  Tennessee,  and  on  June  2  General  Burnside  left 
Cincinnati  for  Lexington,  to  take  personal  command  of 
his  forces  in  the  field ;  but  on  his  arrival  there  he  found 


1863]  FALMOUTH   TO  KENTUCKY.  277 

an  order  awaiting  him  to  send  8,000  men  at  once  to 
Vicksburg  to  re-enforce  General  Grant,  which  obliged  him 
to  change  his  plans.  Instead  of  the  trip  to  East  Tennes 
see  the  troops  were  ordered  to  be  ready  to  march  the 
next  morning  with  eight  days  rations.  Reveille  was 
sounded  at  two  o'clock  that  morning,  and  by  four  o'clock 
the  men  were  on  the  march.  Camp  Dick  Robinson  was 
reached  just  at  dark,  and  the  next  morning  the  march  to 
Nicholasville  was  resumed.  That  place  was  reached  by 
noon,  and  quite  late  that  afternoon  the  cars  were  taken 
for  Covington. 

No  hint  of  their  destination  had  as  yet  reached  the 
rank  and  file,  and  many  were  the  speculations  indulged 
in  as  to  the  cause  of  the  sudden  change  in  the  general's 
plans.  At  daybreak  on  June  6  the  Ohio  river  was 
crossed,  and  cars  on  the  Ohio  &  Mississippi  railroad 
were  taken  at  Cincinnati.  It  became  evident  then  that 
Vicksburg,  eight  hundred  miles  away,  was  the  objective 
point.  This  was  a  change  with  a  vengeance  ;  but  then, 
as  Voltaire  said  about  his  ornamental  trees  when  a  friend 
remarked  that  they  grew  rapidly,  "That  is  what  they 
are  here  for." 

At  noon  a  short  stop  was  made  at  Seymour,  Ind.,  and 
Vincennes  was  reached  at  dark.  An  all-day  ride  in  a 
freight  car,  packed  in  like  sheep,  roused  a  hearty  appre 
ciation  of  the  good  bread  and  coffee  that  was  furnished 
them  here  by  the  citizens.  The  Wabash  was  crossed, 
they  were  in  Illinois,  and  all  night  long,  through  the 
darkness  and  gloom  of  a  heavy  rain,  the  cars  rattled  on 
towards  Cairo,  which  was  reached  on  Sunday,  June  7? 
at  candle-light.  The  regiment  was  marched  to  a  low 
plain  just  north  of  the  city,  through  oceans  of  sticky  mud 
that  threatened  at  every  step  to  deprive  them  of  their 


278  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [June, 

boots.      Here    they    were    ordered  to   make  themselves 
"comfortable"  during  the  night. 

Such  a  feat  would  have  been  an  impossibility  to  a 
civilian,  but  a  soldier  is  bound  to  obey  orders ;  ergo, 
when  told  to  be  comfortable,  he  straightway  is  com 
fortable.  But  in  this  particular  instance,  the  men,  though 
comfortable,  were  not  quiet,  and  either  because  of  their 
just  complaints,  or  because  some  one  feared  they  would 
be  lost  in  the  mud,  they  were  again  ordered  to  fall  in, 
and  were  marched  to  the  depot  in  the  city,  where  the 
remainder  of  the  night  was  passed  in  dry  quarters. 
During  the  afternoon  of  June  8  the  regiment  boarded 
the  transport  Armada,  and  the  following  morning  was 
steaming  down  the  Mississippi. 


Quartermaster  Moses  tells  a  story  of  a  negro  who 
came  to  him  the  night  that  was  spent  at  Camp  Dick 
Robinson,  and  who  shared  the  fortunes  of  the  regiment 
until  they  returned  to  Kentucky  again,  as  follows  : 

THE  STORY  OF  THE  BOY  ISAAC. 

I  was  told  that  there  was  a  colored  boy  who  wanted  to 
see  me.  He  was  about  five  feet  ten  in  height,  and  had 
very  good  features,  except  that  he  had  the  flattest  nose  I 
ever  saw.  He  said  he  was  owned  by  a  man  named 
Bias,  who  was  trying  to  turn  all  his  property  into 
cash,  so  that  he  could  get  out  of  the  country.  The  boy 
said  he  was  afraid  his  master  was  going  to  sell  him  to  a 
man  who  had  occasionally  hired  him.  He  seemed  to  be 
very  much  troubled,  and  said,  "I  can't  suit  that  man 
nohow,  and  still  he  is  going  to  buy  me;  and  I  don't 
want  him  to  have  me.  I  've  heard  good  talk  about  you, 


1863.]  FALMOUTH  TO   KENTUCKY.  279 

and  I  want  to  go  with  you/'  "  Well,"  said  I,  "there  has 
been  a  great  uproar  here  several  times  about  your  unfor 
tunate  race,  and  I  declare  I  don't  know  what  to  do  with 
you." 

The  wagons  were  ranged  along  in  a  row,  and  I  was 
walking  back  and  forth  by  them,  and  he  was  following 
along.  Pointing  to  a  convenient  hole  in  one  of  the 
wagons,  I  said,  "  Do  you  suppose  a  man  of  your  size 
could  crawl  into  a  hole  of  that  size?"  I  turned  right 
away,  and  I  did  n't.  see  that  colored  boy  after  that  until 
we  got  to  Nicholasville,  and  then  he  chanced  to  be  in 
the  first  wagon  that  was  unloaded.  It  so  happened  that 
one  of  the  cars  had  been  in  a  collision,  and  had  one 
corner  stove  in.  I  saw  in  a  minute  that  this  would  make 
a  breathing-place  for  the  fellow,  and  in  a  trice  we  had 
him  in  the  car,  and  had  a  barricade  of  hard-tack  boxes 
built  up  around  him.  This  was  the  last  of  him  Until 
Covington  was  reached. 

We  were  busy  loading  the  stuff  onto  wagons,  in  order 
to  get  it  across  the  ferry,  when  one  of  the  men  said, 
"  Quartermaster,  I  'm  afraid  you'll  lose  your  negro  now, 
because  we're  getting  out  of  Kentucky."  "Jeff,"  said  I, 
"you  want  to  keep  in  mind  that  this  is  a  Virginia  negro." 
I  then  had  Isaac  take  an  old  horse  by  the  bridle,  and 
told  him  to  go  on  and  keep  twitching  the  bridle,  and 
not  mind  what  I  said. 

He  obeyed  implicitly,  and  as  we  went  along  to  the 
ferry  I  kept  saying,  "  O  you  black  rascal,  you  Virginia 
darkey,  if  I  ever  get  you  across  this  river  I  '11  pay  you  up  !" 
There  was  a  Kentucky  lieutenant  there  at  the  ferry,  and 
he  called  out,  "What  have  you  got  there?"  Said  I, 
"  He  's  a  Virginia  negro  that  I  Ve  been  bringing  up  here, 
and  he  's  no  good,  and  when  I  get  him  down  in  Missis- 


280  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [June, 

sippi  I'll  kill  him.  I've  been  feeding  him  for  months, 
and  have  n't  got  one  hour's  good  service  out  of  him.  O 
you  black  rascal,  go  along  with  you  !  "  I  kept  that  up, 
and  fairly  beguiled  the  Kentucky  lieutenant  until  we  had 
crossed  the  river. 

He  went  down  with  me  to  Mississippi,  and  proved  to 
be  true  and  reliable.  Zimmerman  wanted  him,  and  said 
he  would  give  him  a  dollar  a  day.  I  told  Isaac  of  the 
offer,  and  that  I  couldn't  afford  to  pay  him  that,  but  he 
said  he  did  n't  want  to  go,  and  clung  to  me.  He  stayed 
by  us  until  we  got  to  Cincinnati,  on  our  way  back  to 
Kentucky  in  the  latter  part  of  August.  When  it  came  to 
crossing  the  river,  he  came  to  me  and  said,  "  I  have  got 
to  bid  you  good-by."  "Why,  how  is  that?"  said  I. 
"  You  are  going  over  there  in  Kentuck,"  said  he, 
"  where  they  hold  my  race  slaves.  I  Ve  got  my  freedom 
now,  but  over  there  I  lose  it,  and  I  can't  give  it  up  !  "  I 
told  him  to  stay  around  there,  and  I  would  come  back 
as  soon  as  I  could  ;  but  we  went  farther  down,  and  that 
was  the  last  I  ever  knew  of  him. 


A  sad  incident  of  the  journey  to  Cairo  was  the  burst 
ing  of  a  locomotive  at  Nicholasville,  George  K.  Gage  of 
Company  K  being  killed  outright,  and  N.  B.  Chamber 
lain  of  Company  I  seriously  injured.  The  story  of 
Chamberlain's  experience  is  told  by  himself: 

"We  had  started  to  go  to  Vicksburg,  and  some  of  us 
were  detailed  to  guard  the  baggage  at  Nicholasville.  I 
was  in  the  freight  car,  with  one  or  two  others,  after  we 
had  got  the  baggage  loaded  and  were  ready  to  go.  The 
engine  had  been  backed  up  to  the  car,  and  left  there, 
and  all  at  once  it  blew  up.  The  engineer  and  fireman 


1863.]  FALMOUTH  TO  KENTUCKY.  .281 

had  left  the  engine,  and  so  they  didn't  get  hurt  at  all. 
I  don't  remember  anything  after  the  explosion  till  I  found 
somebody  was  trying  to  poke  my  eyes  open.  It  was  a 
doctor  from  the  corps  head-quarters — I  do  n't  know  what 
his  name  was, —  and  he  was  looking  at  my  eyes,  and 
poking  them  open  to  see  if  they  were  gone  or  not.  The 
explosion  blew  off  all  my  hair,  and  shut  my  eyes  so  that 
I  did  n't  see  anything  for  three  weeks.  I  bear  the  marks 
of  the  scalding  on  my  arms,  breast,  and  legs  now.  I 
was  in  the  Main-street  hospital  at  Covington  until-  the 
regiment  came  back  from  Vicksburg,  and  then  I  joined 
them,  and  we  went  down  to  Paris,  Ky." 


CHAPTER   IX. 
THE  MISSISSIPPI  CAMPAIGN. 

It  was  on  a  dismal,  rainy  day  that  the  Ninth  New 
Hampshire  started  on  that  fatal  journey  down  the  Mis 
sissippi  on  the  steamer  Armada.  A  few  of  the  com 
panies  were  quartered  on  the  lower  deck,  along  with  the 
heavy  freight,  horses,  engines,  and  coal ;  but  even  these 
surroundings  were  preferable  to  the  hurricane  deck, 
where  the  remaining  companies  faced  the  storm  unshel 
tered.  There  was  almost  unbroken  monotony  in  the 
scenery,  as  the  steamer  glided  swiftly  through  the  yel 
low  water,  the  low  banks  being  covered,  except  at  rare 
intervals,  with  dense  forests  of  cottonwood,  and  most  of 
the  men  preferred  to  pass  the  time  in  sleep.  During  the 
day  the  regiment  was  paid  off  for  the  month  of  April. 
As  it  grew  dark  the  boat  was  anchored  near  the  shore, 
the  channel  being  too  narrow  for  safe  navigation  except 
by  daylight. 

The  next  day  was  clear  and  bright,  and  the  boat 
arrived  at  Memphis  a  little  after  noon.  As  they  were  to 
await  the  arrival  of  the  remainder  of  the  Ninth  corps  at 
this  point,  the  troops  were  allowed  to  go  ashore.  Ripe 
blackberries,  new  apples,  and  other  good  things  were  in 
the  market,  and  the  treat  of  fresh  fruit  was  greatly 
enjoyed.  By  night  nearly  all  the  corps  had  arrived, 
and  for  a  long  distance  the  shore  was  crowded  with 
boats  and  packets  loaded  with  men,  horses,  and  muni 
tions  of  war. 

At  daybreak  on  the  i2th  of  June  quite  a  fleet  set  out 


1863.]  THE  MISSISSIPPI  CAMPAIGN.  283 

from  Memphis.  There  were  fifteen  large  river  boats, 
escorted  by  three  gunboats,  and  all  these  were  heavily 
laden  with  troops  and  supplies  for  the  army  at  Vicks- 
burg.  Below  Memphis  the  river  is  very  crooked,  and  it 
happened  quite  often  that  those  in  the  rear  boats  could 
look  across  the  land  and  see  the  foremost  boats  moving 
in  an  exactly  opposite  direction,  though  all  were  going 
down  river.  A  stop  of  an  hour  or  so  was  made  at  noon, 
at  Helena,  Ark.,  where  contraband  troops  were  busily 
at  work  throwing  up  fortifications.  About  five  thousand 
Western  soldiers  were  garrisoned  here,  under  command 
of  General  Ross.  The  fleet  anchored  for  the  night  near 
the  mouth  of  the  Arkansas  river. 

Just  before  the  fleet  reached  Columbia  the  next  fore 
noon,  a  party  of  bushwhackers  sent  a  few  stray  shots 
among  the  boats,  fortunately  doing  no  injury.  A  gentle 
reminder  from  a  six-pounder  was  sufficient  warning  to 
prevent  any  further  attempt  at  mischief,  and  at  Colum 
bia  several  gunboats  joined  the  fleet  and  escorted  it  dur 
ing  the  passage  of  the  region  infested  by  guerrillas. 

The  country  was  more  open  along  this  part  of  the 
river,  and  plantations  lined  the  banks  on  either  side. 
In  the  centre  of  large  cotton-  and  sugar-fields,  and  sur 
rounded  usually  by  a  cluster  of  shade  trees,  stood  the 
palatial  home  of  the  planter.  A  little  in  the  rear  could 
be  seen  the  hovels  of  the  negroes,  frequently  less  com 
fortable  than  Northern  stables,  and  appearing  all  the 
more  wretched  from  their  contrast  with  the  owner's 
mansion.  Near  by  were  the  sugar  mills  or  cotton 
storehouses,  and  the  gang  of  field  hands  kept  at  their 
tasks  by  the  lash  of  the  overseer  was  all  that  was  want 
ing  to  complete  the  picture. 

The  fleet  reached  Providence,  La.,  at  the  close  of  a 


284  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [June, 

perfect  June  day,  and  a  most  beautiful  panorama  pre 
sented  itself  to  the  view.  The  air  was  soft  and  balmy, 
and  gently  stirred  by  a  deliciously  cool  breeze ;  the 
sharp  prows  of  the  boats  cleft  the  yellow  waters  with  a 
soothing  ripple  ;  the  setting  sun  was  playing  the  artist 
with  wonderful  success — the  light  of  departing  day  his 
pencils,  the  cloudless  sky  his  canvas ;  the  river,  with 
slackening  current  and  widened  channel,  went  rolling 
on  towards  its  ocean  home  with  a  majesty  and  grandeur 
commensurate  to  its  lofty  title  of  Father  of  Waters;  the 
banks  were  crowned  with  forests  of  seemingly  tropical 
luxuriance  and  plantations  of  unrivalled  fertility,  which 
the  mellow  light  softened  into  a  scene  of  almost  celestial 
beauty;  while,  like  things  of  life,  the  steamers  in 
extended  line  glided  along  the  bosom  of  the  mighty 
stream,  their  white  walls  relieved  by  the  dark  masses  of 
soldiery  on  the  decks,  their  flags  rising  and  falling  in 
the  gentle  breeze,  and  their  lofty  smoke-stacks  belching 
huge  wreaths  of  gas  and  vapor  in  grotesque  defiance 
against  the  serene  heavens.  It  was  nearly  midnight,  so 
clear  was  the  twilight,  ere  the  boats  came  to  anchor 
near  a  negro  camp  at  Milliken's  Bend. 

At  daybreak  on  Sunday,  June  14,  the  fleet  was  again 
under  way,  and  at  twenty  minutes  before  seven  the  city 
of  Vicksburg  was  in  sight.  The  troops  disembarked  at 
Young's  Point,  La.,  on  the  opposite  shore  from  the 
besieged  city,  and  having  crossed  the  levee,  pitched 
their  tents  on  an  old  camp-ground  about  a  quarter  of  a 
mile  from  the  river.  Close  by  the  landing  was  a  large 
contraband  camp,  and  the  men  were  greatly  inter 
ested  in  watching  the  novel  and  even  ludicrous  scenes 
that  were  constantly  being  enacted  before  them.  The 
majority  of  the  negroes  had  managed  to  cover  their 


1863.]  THE  MISSISSIPPI  CAMPAIGN.  285 

nakedness,  but  the  variety  of  apparel  was  both  fearful 
and  wonderful.  In  their  departure  from  the  house  of 
bondage  they  had  not  forgotten  to  spoil  the  Egyptians, 
and  to  "  borrow  "  everything  left  behind  by  the  master 
and  mistress  in  their  hasty  flight. 

Here  was  an  old  patriarch  with  bare  splay  feet,  the 
remnants  of  a  pair  of  plantation  trousers,  an  embroi 
dered  vest,  which  also  did  duty  as  shirt  and  coat,  and 
a  brimless  straw  hat.  His  companion  was  a  buxom 
"  mammy,"  who  had  endeavored  to  deck  herself  out 
in  a  gay  silk  gown  that  had  once  graced  a  belle  of 
somewhat  more  slender  proportions.  And  the  remain 
der  of  the  company,  when  they  were  arrayed  at  all, 
were  fully  as  kaleidoscopic  in  their  decorations.  Their 
only  shelter  from  the  rain  and  sun  was  a  few  old  rem 
nants  of  tents  and  some  brush  booths.  Yet  they  were 
by  no  means  unhappy  ;  on  the  contrary,  it  was  their 
ideal  of  freedom — plenty  of  army  rations,  and  no  over 
seer  with  his  cruel  lash  to  drive  them  to  work.  They 
had  learned  their  first  lesson  in  politics — to  "go  in  for 
the  old  flag  and  appropriations." 

But  these  poor  human  chattels,  who  knew  no  other 
value  of  themselves  save  that  reckoned  in  dollars  and 
cents,  whose  greatest  luxury  hitherto  had  been  an  occa 
sional  holiday, — not  one  in  seven,  but  one  or  more  at 
Christmas-time — of  both  sexes,  all  complexions  and 
shades  of  color,  and  of  all  ages,  were  a  strange,  sad 
sight  for  Northern  eyes  to  look  upon  ;  while  many  of 
their  customs,  in  which  the  solemn  and  the  grotesque 
were  curiously  blended,  were  alternately  provocative  of 
tears  and  laughter,  and  exceedingly  touching  in  that 
they  betrayed  the  extreme  ignorance  and  simplicity  of 
these  child-like  people. 


286  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [June, 

One  day  funeral  services,  conducted  in  regular  plan 
tation  style,  were  held  over  two  little  children.  The 
coffins — old  boxes  which  had  formerly  contained  army 
rations — were  borne  to  the  graves  by  aged,  almost  tot 
tering,  negroes,  and  behind  them  trailed  the  mourners 
in  their  piebald  finery.  One  of  the  rude  coffins  was 
lowered  into  the  tiny  grave,  and  then  a  hymn  was 
"deaconed  out"  and  sung  by  the  mourners  and 
friends.  It  was  a  good  old  "  Methody "  hymn,  and 
the  preacher  pretended  to  read  it  from  a  book,  but 
his  additions  to  the  original  text  would  hardly  have 
been  appreciated  by  the  author. 

While  the  mourners  were  arranged  in  a  circle  around 
the  grave,  a  young  colored  woman  who  was  doing  some 
washing  near  by  was  attracted  by  the  singing,  and  tak 
ing  her  soap  in  her  hand,  she  joined  the  ring  and  in  the 
singing.  In  her  growing  interest  in  this  she  forgot  her 
soap,  and  it  slipped  from  her  hand  onto  the  ground. 
Another  woman,  singing  lustily  on  the  other  side,  saw 
it  fall,  slipped  out  of  the  circle,  went  slyly  around, 
picked  up  the  soap,  hid  it  in  her  dress,  and  was  soon 
back  in  her  place,  singing  even  more  lustily  than  be 
fore. 

All  knelt  during  the  emotional  prayer  which  followed, 
and  in  this  the  soldiers  and  their  wives  and  little  ones 
were  quaintly,  yet  pathetically,  remembered.  Another 
hymn  was  sung,  and  then  came  a  characteristic  "dis 
course,"  in  the  midst  of  which  the  preacher,  finding 
the  sun  was  a  little  too  strong  on  his  unprotected  head, 
improvised  a  covering  by  folding  together  the  sides  of  a 
crownless,  broad-brimmed  hat  and  laying  it  flatwise  on 
his  head.  The  filling  of  the  grave  was  next  in  order, 
the  mourners,  led  off  by  the  preacher,  throwing  in 


1863.]  THE  MISSISSIPPI  CAMPAIGN.  287 

handfuls  of  dirt,  a  plaintive  chanting  accompanying 
the  ceremony.  The  other  little  form  was  laid  to  rest 
with  equal  respect,  but  in  the  rush  back  to  camp  which 
ensued,  the  mourners  were  lost  to  sight. 

June  16  the  regiment  took  transports  up  the  Yazoo, 
landed  at  Raines's  Bluff  late  in  the  afternoon,  and  the 
next  morning  marched  two  or  three  miles  to  Milldale. 
At  Haines's  Bluff  were  seen  the  immense  fortifications 
which  Grant  tried  in  vain  to  cross  from  the  front,  but 
from  which  the  enemy  were  quickly  driven  when  he 
came  into  their  rear  from  the  south.  Here,  too,  were 
scores  of  steamboats  and  transports,  tied  up  under  the 
bank  of  the  Yazoo,  showing  that  Grant  was  still  careful 
about  his  rear  and  means  of  escape,  though  maintaining 
so  bold  a  front  at  Vicksburg. 

The  regiment  remained  in  the  camp  at  Milldale  about 
a  week,  and  then  made  an  advance  of  three  or  four 
miles  towards  the  Big  Black.  July  i  they  were  ordered 
to  the  road  running  through  Grant's  right  centre  to 
Vicksburg,  to  assist  in  building  fortifications.  Three 
days  later  they  were  again  on  the  march,  in  the  direc 
tion  of  the  Big  Black.  The  river  was  crossed  July  7, 
and  the  night  was  spent  on  the  river-bank,  in  the  midst 
of  a  blinding  storm.  The  next  afternoon  they  joined  the 
supply  trains,  and  having  drawn  rations  again  pushed 
on  till  night,  when  they  bivouacked  on  a  large  planta 
tion  about  four  miles  from  Jackson. 

Early  on  the  morning  of  July  12,  part  of  the  regiment 
was  ordered  out  on  the  skirmish  line,  and  were  set  to 
work  digging  rifle-pits  not  far  from  the  enemy's  pickets. 
On  the  nights  of  July  15  and  16  the  whole  regiment  was 
ordered  out  and  held  as  reserves.  On  the  lyth  it  was 
found  that  the  city  of  Jackson  had  been  evacuated  by  the 


288  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [July, 

enemy,  and  by  the  2Oth  the  return  march  to  the  Big 
Black  was  taken  up. 

Forty  miles  were  covered  in  this  and  the  following 
day's  march,  and  the  men  were  ready  to  drop  when  a 
halt  was  finally  made,  in  the  vicinity  of  the  river,  late  in 
the  night  of  the  2ist.  So  weary  were  they,  that  without 
stopping  for  coffee  or  food  of  any  sort  they  fell  on  the 
ground  where  they  were  and  slept  the  sleep  of  utter 
exhaustion.  The  river  was  crossed  late  in  the  afternoon 
of  the  following  day?  and  after  a  march  often  miles  the 
regiment  bivouacked  for  the  night.  The  old  camp 
ground  at  Milldale  was  reached  early  in  the  forenoon  of 
the  23d. 

No  man  who  participated  in  it  will  ever  forget  the 
agonies  and  sufferings  endured  on  that  terrible  march, 
and  will  welcome  the  faithful  and  by  no  means  over 
drawn  description  of  it  which  finds  a  place  here  through 
the  kindness  of  Sergeant  Gilmore  of  Company  I : 

RECENT  OPERATIONS  OF  THE  NINTH  ARMY  CORPS. 

[Correspondence  of  the  Philadelphia  Press.] 

MILLDALE,  Miss.,  July  24,  1863. 

The  Ninth  Army  corps  has  found  a  resting-place  at 
its  old  camp,  after  twenty-six  days  of  unusual  hardship. 
Officers  and  men  have  been  without  a  change  of  cloth 
ing  during  all  that  time  ;  that,  with  the  dust  and  heat 
and  want  of  water,  made  it  almost  intolerable.  I  have 
seen  men  and  mules  and  horses  rush  frantically  to  the 
pond,  all  plunge  in,  and  drink  indiscriminately.  We 
longed  for  the  pure  streams  of  Pennsylvania,  and  thought 
of  waters  we  would  there  never  think  of  drinking,  which 
we  would  now  consider  a  luxury.  Saturday,  the  first 


MINOT  R.  PHILLIPS,  Co.  I.  J.  FRANK  FOSTER,  Co.  I. 


CORP.  ALBERT  R.  WHEELER,  Co.  I.  JOSEPH  W.  PIERCE,  Co.  I. 


1863.]  THE  MISSISSIPPI  CAMPAIGN.  289 

clay  of  the  fight,  there  was  quite  a  number  of  the  troops 
that  were  going  into  position  that  suffered  from  sun 
stroke,  especially  of  the  Thirty-fifth  Massachusetts  and 
Eleventh  New  Hampshire. 

We  received  orders  to  move,  on  our  return  from  Jack 
son,  at  four  o'clock  on  Sunday,  the  i9th  ;  but  as  the 
First  division,  under  General  Welch,  had  been  up  the 
railroad,  towards  Memphis,  some  eleven  miles,  destroy 
ing  it,  and  had  just  returned  about  that  time,  at  his 
request  the  march  was  deferred  until  morning,  as  General 
Parke  desired  the  whole  corps  to  move  together. 

The  next  morning  the  whole  corps  moved  about  five 
o'clock.  The  roads  were  deep  with  mud,  the  sun 
intensely  hot,  and  water  scarce,  yet  we  were  pushed 
on  with  terrible,  relentless  earnestness,  until  we  had 
made  about  twelve  miles  by  ten  o'clock.  We  rested 
until  about  four  o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  when  we  took 
the  road  towards  Brownsville,  marching  until  eleven 
o'clock  at  night,  and  having  made  twenty-two  miles 
during  the  day.  The  Second  division  coming  into  camp 
at  that  time,  there  was  no  one  to  show  where  water  was 
to  be  got,  and  the  tired  men,  after  hunting  around  in  the 
dark  for  some  time,  went  to  bed,  wet  with  sweat,  and 
without  coffee.  The  evening  was  very  pleasant,  and 
this  road,  not  having  been  travelled  so  much,  was  easy 
going,  but  we  were  so  much  crippled  by  the  morning's 
work  that  it  was  little  else  than  torture.  The  next  morn 
ing  we  were  roused  between  three  and  four  o'clock. 
Some  few  had  been  able  to  find  water,  but,  without  hav 
ing  time  to  make  coffee,  were  urged  on  with  empty, 
turning  stomachs,  and  dry,  parched  throats,  the  Second 
division  taking  the  lead.  Four  miles  brought  us  to 
Brownsville,  a  village  of  a  dozen  houses.  Along  the 


2 90  NINTH  NE  W  HA MPSHIRE.  [July, 

road  were  fine" orchards  of  unripe  peaches,  and  fields 
of  watermelons  and  citrons  scarcely  ripe,  which  were 
snatched  and  devoured  as  the  men  went  along.  Water 
melons,  anyways  near  ripe,  were  delicious  to  their  thirsty 
throats.  So  they  dragged  themselves  along  until  ten 
o'clock,  making  ten  or  twelve  miles. 

On  the  way  up  to  Jackson,  each  company  seized  a 
mule  or  horse,  and  used  it  for  a  water-carrier.  The 
canteens  were  strung  together  over  its  back,  and 
would  be  trotted  off  to  some  well  or  pond  to  be  filled. 
This  was  an  admirable  arrangement ;  but  to  support 
such  marching  took  more  than  ordinary  strength,  and 
water  was  not  sufficient  to  renovate  bodies  that  wanted 
food  and  the  usual  stimulant  of  coffee.  Along  with  us 
the  butchers  drove  a  large  herd  of  cattle,  of  all  ages, 
sexes,  sizes,  and  conditions,  which  were  butchered  as 
occasion  offered  ;  but  men  would  have  given  a  whole 
beef  for  a  side  of  bacon.  There  was  scarcely  salt 
enough  to  make  it  fit  for  the  palate,  and,  driven  along 
steadily  all  day  without  water,  their  meat  was  as  dry 
and  sapless  as  the  men  themselves.  The  order  of  march 
was,  ordinarily,  to  march  until  ten  o'clock,  rest,  and 
resume  the  march  at  four  o'clock  in  the  afternoon.  This 
day  the  order  was  changed,  and  we  started  at  three 
o'clock.  The  road  lay  through  a  long  stretch  of  hilly 
country,  bare  and  open.  The  sun  poured  down  its 
fiercest  rays,  and  we  marched  an  hour  without  rest  at 
the  outstart.  Men  fell  out  by  the  scores  ;  numbers  fell 
down  with  sunstroke, — in  some  instances  dying  immedi 
ately,  others  giving  the  most  curious  exhibitions  of  mad 
ness,  snapping  and  biting  like  dogs,  kicking  like  horses, 
and  taking  three  or  four  men  to  keep  them  in  the  wagons 
or  ambulances.  Regiments  retained  but  a  skeleton  of 


1863.]  THE  MISSISSIPPI  CAMPAIGN. 

their  organizations,  and  the  roads  were  full  of  stragglers 
from  them  all. 

Regiments  that  had  campaigned  in  North  Carolina 
and  Virginia,  South  Carolina  and  Maryland,  were 
demoralized.  Men  never  known  to  have  failed  in  the 
hardest  trials  had  to  give  way  here,  many  with  a  shame 
and  mortification  that  was  painful  to  witness,  and  which 
none  but  an  old  soldier  with  the  soldier's  pride  can 
appreciate,  and  which,  when  once  done,  like  the  yield 
ing  to  the  first  temptation  in  crime,  leads  to  ruin.  The 
night  of  the  second  day  we  came  within  two  miles  of 
the  Big  Black,  near,  I  think,  Messenger's  Ford- — at  any 
rate  it  is  now  called  Sherman's  bridge,  and  the  way  to 
it  lies  through  miles  and  miles  of  corn-fields  on  either 
side  of  the  river.  Here  were  springs  of  delicious  water. 
Oh,  what  a  luxury  !  Here  we  laid  by  until  the  next 
day  at  four  o'clock,  beneath  the  shades  of  these  mag 
nificent  magnolias  and  wide-spreading  beech. 

When  we  came  to  the  Big  Black  a  most  furious  rain 
came  down — so  sudden  it  seemed  like  throwing  a  bucket 
of  water  on  you.  Then  the  dusty  roads  became  tough 
as  mortar-beds,  and  it  was  easiest  to  pull  off  the  shoes 
and  go  it  barefoot — as  many  men  and  officers  did.  Thus 
we  plod  on  until  eleven,  coming  within  a  mile  or  less  of 
our  camp  which  we  left  on  the  4th  of  July,  and  laid 
down  in  the  mud  to  snatch  the  few  brief  moments  of 
rest  the  chills  and  the  vermin  and  the  red  ants  would 
give  you  ;  blest  if  you  have  not  the  toothache,  aching 
bones,  skinned  and  blistered  feet,  and  galled  legs,  the 
latter  the  intensest  torture  of  marching  in  a  hot  climate. 

It  was  like  reaching  home  to  get  to  our  camp,  undis 
turbed  as  it  had  been  since  we  left,  to  have  a  bath,  and 
fling  our  dirty,  rotten  clothes  away. 


292  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [August, 

After  a  two  weeks  stay  at  this  point  marching  orders 
were  received,  and  the  regiment  again  boarded  a  river 
boat  and  started  down  the  Yazoo  river.  The  next  two 
weeks  were  full  of  never-to-be-forgotten  horror.  The 
boat  was  over-crowded,  and  with  the  hot  sun  and 
drenching  rain  alternately  beating  down  on  the  unpro 
tected  men,  disease  and  death  made  heavy  inroads  on 
their  number  before  the  journey  up  the  Mississippi  was 
finished. 

The  boat  arrived  at  Cairo,  111.,  August  16,  and  the 
next  night,  closely  packed  in  freight  cars,  the  regiment 
started  for  Cincinnati,  which  was  reached  about  noon  on 
the  2Oth.  Those  who  were  able — and  they  were  few 
indeed — marched  through  the  city,  and  crossing  to  the 
Kentucky  side  of  the  river,  went  into  camp.  Orders  to 
move  came  on  the  22d,  and  on  the  following  day  the 
able-bodied  marched  to  the  depot,  and  the  sick,  who 
outnumbered  the  well,  were  carried  in  ambulances. 
Once  more  they  were  packed  into  the  hot,  close  cars, 
and  having  journeyed  as  far  as  Nicholasville,  gladly 
disembarked  and  went  into  quarters. 

The  regiment  rested  at  Nicholasville  until  September 
9,  when,  head-quarters  having  been  established  at  Paris, 
the  sick  were  removed  to  the  temporary  hospital,  and 
those  who  were  able  to  do  duty  were  stationed  in  block 
houses  along  the  line  of  the  Kentucky  Central  railroad 
to  serve  as  guards.  It  was  fortunate  for  the  men  that 
only  this  light  duty  was  required  of  them,  for  it  is  hard 
to  conceive  of  the  pitable  condition  to  which  the  regi 
ment  had  been  reduced  by  disease  and  death. 

At  the  formal  inspection  of  the  regiment  about  the 
middle  of  October,  the  inspector-general  made  a  return 
of  only  ninety-three  enlisted  men  fit  for  active  service. 


9863.]  THE  MISSISSIPPI  CAMPAIGN.  293 

Think  what  this  statement  means  !  Only  fourteen 
months  since  the  regiment  left  Concord  with  a  thou- 
.sand  men  in  the  ranks,  and  now  less  than  a  hundred 
are  available  for  action.  One  can  scarcely  realize  the 
terrible  sufferings  endured  by  these  men  from  the  time 
they  left  Kentucky  in  the  early  summer  until  their 
return  in  the  autumn.  The  outlines  of  their  journey- 
ings  have  been  briefly  sketched,  but  the  few  diaries 
that  were  kept  during  that  fatal  campaign  tell  a  story 
•that  is  only  too  realistic  in  its  detail. 


VICKSBURG,   JACKSON,   AND   BACK    TO    OLD    KENTUCKY. 

All  the  long  hours  of  Sunday,  June  14, — the  first  day 
in  Louisiana — the  men  listened  to  the  low,  thunderous 
booming  of  the  distant  mortars,  and  when  darkness  set 
tled  down  upon  them  could  still  trace  the  path  of  each 
messenger  of  destruction  from  the  mortar's  mouth  to  the 
place  of  bursting  by  the  line  of  fire  issuing  from  the 
burning  fuse.  Soon  after  daybreak  on  the  i5th  the 
regiment  was  ordered  across,  by  the  new  corduroy 
road,  to  the  south  side  of  Young's  Point,  and  there 
stacked  arms  and  lay  waiting  to  be  taken  over  the 
river,  a  part  of  the  division  having  been  transported 
and  landed  below  the  city.  About  two  in  the  after 
noon  word  was  received  for  the  regiment  to  remain 
where  it  was  during  the  night,  but  as  the  ground 
thereabouts  was  very  marshy,  and  promised  abundant 
occupation  in  the  killing  of  the  black  snakes  that  every 
where  abounded,  the  men  were  not  sorry  when  a  later 
order  sent  them  back  to  the  morning's  camp. 

For  some  reason  the  plan  of  operations  was  changed 
that  night,  and  the  next  morning  the  regiment  boarded 


294  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [June, 

the  steamer  Armenia,  and  started  up  the  Yazop  river. 
The  channel  of  the  river  was  deep  and  narrow,  and  the 
sluggish  stream,  black  and  filthy  from  decaying  vege 
table  matter,  richly  deserved  its  name  of  "  Poison 
Water."  The  weather  was  hot  and  sultry,  and  the 
only  protection  from  the  burning  sun  in  the  middle  of 
the  day  was  by  lying  on  the  deck  under  a  bit  of  canvas. 
Late  in  the  afternoon  a  heavy  shower  came  on,  and  when 
the  boat  arrived  at  Snyder's  Bluff  it  was  thought  best 
not  to  attempt  the  landing  of  the  troops  that  night. 
When,  soon  after  dawn,  they  did  disembark,  it  was  to 
find  the  mud  six  inches  deep  on  shore.  Breakfast  was 
eaten  near  the  landing,  and  then  the  regiment  moved 
back  about  two  miles,  to  the  vicinity  of  Milldale. 

The  country  about  them,  though  destitute  of  high 
hills,  was  very  uneven,  being  cut  up  in  every  direc 
tion  by  ravines  worn  out  in  the  soft  soil  by  the  action 
of  the  water.  The  vegetation  was  rank  and  dense,, 
the  ground  being  covered  for  the  most  part  either  with 
forests  or  a  thick  jungle  of  cane-brakes  and  bushes. 
The  camp  was  on  a  little  knoll  close  by  the  bed  of  a 
small  stream,  but  the  water  was  both  warm  and  tainted, 
while  that  from  the  near-by  springs  was  strongly  impreg 
nated  with  sulphur.  The  camp-ground  had  previously 
been  occupied  by  both  Confederate  and  Union  troops, 
and  was  not  in  the  most  cleanly  condition  imaginable, 
but  the  regiment's  experience  of  Falmouth  mud  had 
taught  them  something  of  camp  architecture,  and  as 
they  set  to  work  with  a  will  the  camp  soon  presented  a 
comfortable  appearance. 

This  position  was  about  ten  miles  up  the  Yazoo  river,, 
and  nearly  the  same  distance  in  the  rear  ofVicksburg. 
It  had  been  taken  from  the  Confederates  some  time  in 


1863.]  THE  MISSISSIPPI  CAMPAIGN.  295 

May,  and  was  strongly  fortified  with  rifle-pits  and  forts 
for  mounting  siege  guns.  Joe  Johnston's  army,  which 
now  had  its  head-quarters  at  Jackson,  must  pierce  this 
line  of  works  before  it  could  attack  Grant's  army  in  the 
rear,  with  the  hope  of  succoring  Pemberton,  shut  up  in 
the  besieged  city.  For  a  month  he  had  been  hemmed 
in,  and  as  Grant's  army  held  the  river  both  above  and 
below  the  town,  and  every  avenue  of  escape  was  guarded 
by  fixed  batteries  and  gunboats,  the  prospect  was  certain 
of  a  speedy  and  unconditional  fall  of  the  city  without 
any  active  offensive  operations. 

Heavy  cannonading  from  the  batteries  along  the  river 
could  be  heard  at  all  hours.  These  guns  were  capable 
of  throwing  hundred-pound  shells,  and  the  explosion  of 
such  huge  missiles  over  the  doomed  city  was  terrible  in 
its  effectiveness,  while  the  women  and  children  remained 
in  the  cellars  of  the  houses,  not  daring  to  risk  their  lives 
in  any  more  exposed  position.  Add  to  this  constant 
danger  the  insufficient  supply  of  food  now  remaining  in 
the  city,  and  it  will  be  seen  that  it  was  only  a  question 
of  time  when  the  end  must  come. 

For  several  days  now  the  Ninth  New  Hampshire  was 
kept  busily  at  work  strengthening  the  defences  and  doing 
picket  duty,  but  at  five  o'clock  in  the  afternoon  of  the 
22d  orders  were  received  to  be  ready  to  march  in  an 
hour  with  three  days  rations.  It  was  only  a  little  past 
the  hour  when  the  start  was  made,  and  after  marching 
about  five  miles  the  regiment  bivouacked  for  the  night 
in  a  sandy  field.  The  march  towards  the  Big  Black 
was  continued  the  next  morning  without  stopping  to 
make  coffee,  for  the  weather  was  exceedingly  warm, 
and  short  marches  and  long  halts  were  the  rule  in  the 
heat  of  the  day.  It  was  not  long  before  the  troops  came 


296  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [June, 

across  some  trees  which  had  been  felled  in  such  a  man 
ner,  as  to  make  the  road  practically  impassable,  while 
a  little  farther  on  a  bridge  was  found  to  be  partially 
destroyed.  The  pioneer  corps  were  left  behind  to  clear 
the  way  for  the  batteries,  and  the  remaining  troops 
pushed  on  until  noon,  and  then  bivouacked  for  the 
night. 

Reveille  was  sounded  at  dawn,  and  the  men  pro 
ceeded  as  fast  as  was  possible  over  the  uneven  road. 
When  eight  miles  had  been  covered  all  baggage  was 
left  behind  under  guard,  and  a  close  reconnoissance 
was  begun,  for  they  were  now  nearing  the  enemy's 
outposts.  They  had  not  gone  very  far  before  several 
Confederate  scouts  were  seen,  and  the  order  to  return 
was  at  once  given.  The  place  where  the  baggage  had 
been  left  was  soon  reached,  and  the  troops  quickly 
made  their  way  back  to  the  camp  where  they  had  spent 
the  night,  only  stopping  now  and  then  to  impede  in 
their  turn  any  attempted  advance  of  the  Confederate 
forces.  It  was  nearly  midnight  when  they  reached 
camp,  and  the  men  were  greatly  fatigued,  but  it  con 
soled  them  somewhat  when  they  learned  later  on  that 
they  had  just  missed  running  onto  a  large  force  of  Con 
federate  cavalry.  This  was  one  of  the  severest  marches 
and  day's  work  in  the  history  of  the  regiment.  The 
day  had  been  extremely  hot,  the  men  were  utterly 
exhausted,  and  as  they  turned  into  the  old  camp  at 
that  late  hour,  Colonel  Titus's  voice  was  most  welcome 
as  he  said, — "  Take  care  of  yourselves  as  well  as  you 
can,  boys.  God  bless  you  !" 

Camp  was  changed  two  or  three  times  during  the 
next  ten  days,  and  the  men  were  alternately  employed 
on  the  defences  and  in  doing  picket  duty.  In  building 


1863.]  THE  MISSISSIPPI  CAMPAIGN.  297 

the  fortifications  everything  available  was  made  use  of, 
whether  it  belonged  to  friend  or  foe.  Sometimes  the 
planter  would  try  to  beg  off  when  the  wagons  would 
come  for  the  cotton,  claiming  that  he  was  a  Union  man, 
but  the  bales  would  be  tumbled  in  just  the  same.  One 
old  fellow  who  had  lost  his  cotton  as  well  as  nearly 
everything  eatable  on  the  place,  came  to  Colonel  Titus, 
and  with  tears  in  his  eyes  told  him  that  he  had  only  a 
little  corn  left,  and  that  the  soldiers  were  taking  that. 
The  colonel  told  him  to  put  his  corn  in  the  house,  and 
he  would  guarantee  that  no  one  should  molest  it.  So 
the  man  saved  his  corn  if  he  didn't  his  bacon.  Black 
berries  were  plenty  everywhere,  and  enough  for  all. 
They  were  the  largest  and  most  luscious  ever  seen,  and 
were  eaten  in  great  quantities  by  the  men,  for  they 
were  a  most  welcome  relief  from  hard-tack  and  bacon. 
The  weather  was  terribly  hot,  and  it  was  tedious 
waiting,  but  the  hope  of  a  bloodless  victory  kept  the 
men  in  good  spirits.  On  the  evening  of  July  3  it  was 
rumored  about  the  camp  that  Pemberton  was  to  surren 
der  Vicksburg  on  the  National  holiday,  and  a  despatch 
to  General  Griffin,  early  in  the  morning  of  the  4th,  noti 
fied  him  that  the  surrender  would  be  made  at  nine 
o'clock,  and  that  he  was  to  hold  his  brigade  in  readiness 
to  march  at  a  moment's  notice.  The  brigade  did  not 
enter  the  city,  but  a  letter  of  Adjutant  Chandler's  shows 
how  he  and  a  few  others  managed  to  be  "in  at  the 
death." 

"Before  daylight  on  the  morning  of  the  4th,  Lieu 
tenant-Colonel  Babbitt,  Captains  Blaisdell  and  Alexan 
der,  and  I  started  from  camp  for  Vicksburg.  When  we 
reached  our  outer  works  we  found  a  flag  of  truce  flying, 
and  learned  that  there  was  a  suspension,  and  negotia- 


298     •  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [July, 

tions  which  might  result  in  the  capitulation  of  the  place. 
This  was  about  7  a.  m.  The  fact  grew  more  and  more 
apparent  that  something  was  going  to  happen,  and  we 
spent  an  hour  examining  our  extensive  earthworks 
(now,  however,  of  little  interest  to  us),  and  also  visited 
the  Eighth  Illinois,  where  we  learned  that  the  surrender 
was  decided  upon,  and  that  Logan's  division  of  McPher- 
son's  corps  would  enter  the  city  at  about  ten  o'clock. 

"We  attached  ourselves  to  the  staff  of  that  regiment, 
and  had  the  high  honor  and  extreme  happiness  of  enter 
ing  Vicksburg  with  the  first  brigade  which  passed  in. 
You  may  depend  upon  this,  that  it  was  indeed  a  glorious 
Fourth  for  us.  We  went  in  with  the  bands  playing 
'  Star  Spangled  Banner,'  and  the  drums  and  fifes  play 
ing  '  Yankee  Doodle '  and  '  Dixie,'  with  all  the  Secesh 
looking  at  us  with  a  stupid  stare.  We  spent  five  or  six 
hours  in  the  city,  watered  our  horses  in  the  Mississippi 
river  in  the  centre  of  the  town,  and  strolled  around  at 
our  leisure.  The  Stars  and  Stripes  have  fluttered  over 
the  court-house  since  that  time,  and  our  victory  is 
complete. 

"Near  20,000  rebels  I  saw  stack  their  arms  outside 
their  works  and  march  off.  We  have  near  30,000  pris 
oners,  40,000  stand  of  small  arms,  and  over  100  pieces 
of  artillery.  Their  river  batteries  comprise  twenty- 
seven  large  siege  guns.  You  may  suppose  our  happi 
ness  was  complete,  and  here  comes  the  other  side  of  our 
experience.  We  got  back  to  our  camp,  more  dead  than 
alive  from  heat  and  fatigue,  at  eleven  o'clock  that  night 
— only  to  find  that  our  regiment  had  moved  that  day  in 
the  direction  of  Jackson.  We  started  at  daylight  in 
pursuit.  Came  up  about  noon,  and  kept  on  with  the 
regiment." 


1863.]  THE  MISSISSIPPI  CAMPAIGN-,  299 

July  4  orders  were  received  to  be  ready  to  march  at 
noon.  Through  clouds  of  suffocating  dust,  and  under  a 
scorching  sun,  the  march  to  the  Big  Black  river  was 
made,  and  several  of  the  men  fell  by  the  way  from  sun 
stroke.  On  reaching  the  river  it  was  found  that  a  tern- 
porary  bridge  had  been  thrown  across,  and  the  infantry 
rested  while  the  battery  of  twenty-pound  guns  was  slowly 
and  carefully  drawn  over  the  frail  structure.  The  bridge 
was  a  weak  affair  at  best,  and  just  as  the  last  caissons 
were  crossing  the  whole  thing  toppled  over  into  the 
deep,  muddy  stream. 

The  pioneer  corps  was  at  once  set  to  work  building  a 
raft,  and  as  it  was  now  nearly  sundown  the  men  were 
ordered  to  get  what  sleep  they  could  in  the  mean  time. 
The  halt  had  been  made  in  a  large  corn-field,  and  after 
making  coffee  the  men  prepared  for  a  comfortable  nap. 
Some  lay  down  between  the  corn  rows  upon  the  ground  ; 
some  of  the  more  fastidious  improvised  corn-stalk  mat 
tresses  ;  and  a  few,  who  wanted  a  good,  cool  sleep, 
stripped  off  their  clothes  and  used  them  for  a  bed. 

Scarcely  had  the  sun  set  when  huge,  black  clouds 
began  to  mount  up  the  western  sky,  soon  overspreading 
the  whole  heavens,  and  a  deluging  thunder-shower 
began.  The  almost  incessant  flashes  of  lightning  were 
of  chalky  whiteness,  the  thunder  rolled  and  crashed, 
and  the  rain  literally  poured  down  in  torrents.  The 
sleepers  awoke  to  find  themselves  floating  in  bath-tubs 
between  the  corn  rows,  and  those  who  had  removed  their 
clothing  had  the  pleasure  of  a  shower-bath  while  making 
their  toilet.  Some  tried  to  brave  it  out,  but  one  after 
another  they  came  to  a  vertical  position — the  most  con 
venient  for  shedding  water — and  thus  remained  awaiting 
the  order  to  march,  varying  the  monotony  by  drawing 


300  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [July, 

either  foot  out  of  the  yielding  paste  into  which  it  was 
rapidly  sinking,  only  to  set  it  in  a  new  and  not  more 
stable  footing  and  repeat  the  operation  with  the  other. 

About  midnight  the  raft  was  reported  to  be  ready,  and 
the  men  made  their  way  to  the  river  through  a  perfect 
slough  of  mud,  with  every  particle  of  clothing  and  lug 
gage  drenched  and  dripping  and  the  storm  still  continu 
ing  in  all  its  fury.  The  raft,  intended  for  twenty,  was 
found  on  trial  to  be  capable  of  carrying  only  seven  or 
eight.  Large  fires  of  rails  were  built  on  both  sides  of 
the  river,  and  threw  their  weird  glare  over  the  turbid, 
swollen  stream.  A  party  of  men  stood  on  either  shore, 
and  with  a  rope  attached  to  each  end  of  the  raft  pulled 
it  forward  and  backward  once  in  about  five  minutes, 
while  the  thunder  and  lightning,  rain  and  darkness,  the 
pitchy  blackness  of  the  river,  and  the  dead  horses 
anchored  to  the  fallen  caissons  and  just  visible  as  they 
rose  and  fell  with  the  surging  water,  combined  to  form  a 
ghostly  scene  which  few  of  those  who  beheld  it  will  ever 
forget.  The  opposite  bank  of  the  river  was  high  and 
steep,  the  clay  as  yielding  as  lard,  and  by  the  time  the 
men  in  their  drenched  garments  had  clawed  and  crawled 
their  way  to  the  top  they  seemed  verily  to  have  "  come 
up  from  wallowing  in  the  mire." 

Once  across  the  river  blankets  and  clothing  were 
quickly  dried  at  the  blazing  fires,  coffee  was  made,  a 
pig  was  shot  and  roasted,  and  at  six  o'clock  the  march 
was  renewed.  The  first  part  of  the  route  was  through 
muddy  bottom  lands,  and  with  parboiled  feet  and  soaked 
shoes  it  was  both  hard  and  heavy  marching.  Coming 
down  the  Mississippi  the  soldiers  had  watched  the  men 
heaving  the  deep-sea  lead  and  calling  out  "Twain 
two — twain  four — no  bottom,"  and  once  that  forenoon,  as 


1863.]  THE  MISSISSIPPI  CAMPAIGN.  301 

they  waded  through  a  stream  running  across  the  road, 
some  one  sung  out  "  Twain  two — twain  four — no 
bottom,"  and  it  went  along  the  whole  line  of  the  regi 
ment.  Towards  noon  higher  ground  was  reached,  and 
the  way  was  less  difficult.  The  shower  of  the  previous 
night  proved  to  be  a  blessing  in  one  respect,  for  no 
water  could  be  obtained  except  that  dipped  from  the 
pools  by  the  roadside  ;  it  was- very  roily — perfectly  yel 
low,  in  fact, — but  in  the  absence  of  better  could  be 
swallowed. 

During  the  forenoon  the  mansion  of  Joe  Davis,  brother 
of  Jefferson  Davis,  was  passed.  It  had  been  set  on  fire 
by  the  cavalry,  and  was  in  full  blaze.  Near  where  the 
regiment  halted  at  noon  some  of  the  men  found  the 
library  of  Jeff  Davis  hidden  in  the  attic  of  an  old  log 
house,  and  among  other  things  one  man  secured  a  gold- 
headed  cane  presented  to  Davis  by  President  Pierce 
when  the  former  was  secretary  of  war.  Here  they 
rested  and  dried  their  clothing  till  nearly  four  in  the 
afternoon,  and  then  moved  on  a  few  miles  and  encamped 
near  a  church.  The  seats  were  movable  benches,  and 
the  men  brought  them  out  and  slept  on  "  bedsteads"  that 
night.  Only  dry  rations — hard-tack,  sugar,  and 
coffee — and  fresh  beef  were  available  on  the  march,  and 
the  meat — as  the  cattle  were  killed  after  being  driven  all 
day,  and  were  cooked  as  soon  as  bled,  for  the  next 
morning's  breakfast,  was  productive  of  sudden  attacks 
of  cholera  and  the  like. 

The  march  was  continued  on  the  6th,  again  under  the 
burning  sun,  until  so  many  fell  to  the  ground  from 
exhaustion  that  a  halt  was  ordered  and  coffee  was  made. 
When  the  brigade  was  ready  to  move  the  Ninth  was  sent 
in  advance  to  prevent  house-burning.  It  was  late  at 


302  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE,  [July, 

night  when  the  regiment  turned  into  some  woods  beside 
the  road  and  bivouacked.  So  entirely  worn  out  were  the 
men  that  most  of  them  lay  down  without  pitching  a  tent 
or  even  spreading  a  blanket.  It  was  only  a  brief  inter 
val  before  the  reveille  sounded,  and  after  a  hasty  and 
scanty  breakfast  the  regiment  advanced  three  or  four 
miles  and  halted  near  the  supply  train.  Rations  were 
drawn,  coffee  made,  and  then  on  again  until  night,  when 
guns  were  loaded  and  the  men  slept  on  their  arms. 

The  four  days  march  had  brought  them  to  the  vicinity 
of  Jackson,  wrhere  the  enemy  were  strongly  entrenched. 
The  first  day  they  lay  still,  but  on  the  second  were  sent 
to  the  front  at  daylight  as  skirmishers.  Slowly  the  hours 
wore  away,  and  when  night  came  on  the  pitchy  darkness 
in  the  thick  woods  was  beyond  conception.  The  Ninth 
held  the  front,  but  it  was  so  dark  that  not  even  the  sky 
could  be  seen,  and  no  man's  heart  was  so  strong  that  it 
did  not  throb  a  little  faster  at  the  thought  of  the  invisible 
foe. 

About  midnight  a  scouting  party  attempted  to  break 
through  the  lines,  and  made  a  most  desperately  bold 
push.  They  fired  several  times,  and  then  rushed  upon 
the  pickets  with  bayonets  and  clubbed  muskets.  One 
man  was  run  through  while  on  his  post,  and  instantly 
killed  ;  another  was  stabbed  and  taken  prisoner,  but  man 
aged  to  escape  and  crawl  back  to  the  Union  lines.  The 
reserves  turned  out,  but  in  the  darkness  friend  and  foe 
were  alike  indistinguishable,  and  they  could  only  wait 
anxiously  for  daylight.  When  at  last  the  day  dawned  it 
was  found  that  only  two  men  had  been  wounded  and  one 
killed,  and  the  line  was  unbroken.  Captain  Alexander 
of  Company  I,  which  guarded  the  left  of  the  line,  had 
been  shot  in  the  hip,  and  died  ten  days  later.  As  soon 


1863.]  THE  MISSISSIPPI  CAMPAIGN.  303 

as  the  regiment  was  relieved  it  was  ordered  to  the  rear 
to  rest.  In  regard  to  the  sad  affair  of  the  accidental 
wounding  of  Captain  Alexander,  Sergt.  N.  T.  Button 
writes  as  follows  : 

"Captain  Alexander  was  officer  of  the  picket  line,  the 
orders  to  which  were  to  fire  without  challenging.  In 
the  extreme  pitchy  darkness,  the  captain,  in  making  his 
rounds,  went  outside  the  line  and  approached  it  from  the 
front.  The  pickets  heard  his  steps  and  fired.  He  called 
out  to  them  his  name,  but  they  continued  to  be  wary 
of  the  enemy ;  thought  it  was  a  rebel  who  had  somehow 
caught  his  name  and  was  using  it  to  get  near  the  line,  so 
fired  again,  and  fatally  wounded  the  man  they  loved 
most  and  for  whom  any  man  of  them  would  willingly 
have  given  his  life.  Captain  Alexander  was  much 
beloved  by  all,  was  one  of  the  best  officers  in  the  regi 
ment,  and  his  untimely  death  saddened  every  heart." 

The  night  was  a  terrible  one  for  all.  The  intense 
blackness  of  the  darkness  no  words  can  describe  ;  the 
dread  of  the  unseen  foe  in  front  was  greatly  increased  by 
it ;  the  man  who  was  bayoneted  on  his  post  probably 
knew  not  that  his  foe  was  near  him  until  he  felt  the 
bayonet  thrust  through  his  body,  and  uttered  a  shriek 
that  resounded  through  the  dark  and  silent  woods  with 
an  awful  sound  and  filled  every  mind  with  terror.  All 
were  glad  when  the  morning  light  came. 

That  morning  Johnston  evacuated  the  city.  His  artill 
ery  opened  furiously  in  the  early  morning,  and  the  pick 
ets  were  sharper  than  usual  in  their  fire,  but  it  was  all  a 
cover  for  the  fleeing  host.  The  Union  forces  were  not 
long  in  taking  possession  of  the  city,  and  what  the  Con 
federates  had  spared  soon  littered  the  streets,  though  it 


304  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [July, 

was  too  soon  after  the  capture  of  Vicksburg  for  the  men 
to  have  much  zest  in  the  spoiling.  One  fellow,  however, 
got  more  than  he  wanted.  Corporal  J.  S.  Stewart 
("Tappy")  of  Company  E,  with  others,  was  roaming 
about  the  city  to  see  or  find  something  of  interest,  when 
a  magazine  exploded  under  or  near  him  and  tossed  him 
into  the  air.  His  hair,  eyebrows,  and  beard  were  singed 
off,  and  he  was  burned  quite  badly.  "Tappy"  was 
always  a  cheerful  soul,  wont  to  look  on  the  bright  side  of 
things,  and  in  an  ambulance  on  the  way  back,  with  ban 
daged  eyes  and  blistered  face  and  hands,  was  chuckling 
over  his  comrades  in  the  fact  that  he  could  ride  while 
they  had  to  "peg"  it. 

No  effort  was  made  to  hold  the  city  after  the  railroads 
running  north  and  south  had  been  effectually  destroyed, 
and  the  troops  were  soon  ordered  back  to  the  first  camp 
they  had  occupied  on  the  Yazoo  river.  The  Mississippi 
was  fairly  open,  and  with  Vicksburg  as  a  depot  for  sup 
plies  the  Union  forces  could  afford  to  keep  quiet  while 
the  hot  weather  lasted.  On  the  way  back  the  regiment 
passed  another  night  in  the  corn-field  by  the  Big  Black, 
and  were  again  routed  out  at  midnight,  but  this  time  the 
affair  had  a  comical  side.  The  men  were  greatly 
fatigued,  and  after  a  hearty  supper  of  roast  corn  every 
body  was  ready  for  a  good  night's  rest.  The  camp  had 
been  quiet  for  some  time,  when  suddenly  from  the  rear 
of  the  brigade  there  came  an  unearthly  yell,  just  like  the 
one  the  man  who  was  bayoneted  had  given  a  few  nights 
before,  which  was  quickly  followed  by  a  series  of  shouts 
and  outcries  all  along  the  line.  The  men  were  on  their 
feet  in  an  instant,  and  the  officers  gave  the  command  to 
fall  in,  for  the  first  thought  was  that  the  enemy  had  come 
upon  them  unawares  ;  but  here  is  where  the  fun  came  in. 


CORP.  MINOT  ELLIS,  Co.  I. 


JOHN  E.  ELLIS,  Co.  I. 


WILLIAM  W.  Ross,  Co.  I. 


JAMES  C.  WHITTLE,  Co.  I. 


1863.]  THE  MISSISSIPPI  CAMPAIGN.  305 

The  man  who  gave  the  first  alarm  had  been  awakened 
by  something  stepping  on  him,  but  the  horse  which  he 
thought  he  saw  turned  out  to  be  nothing  more  formida 
ble  than  a  big  black  pig,  who,  more  frightened  by  the 
uproar  than  the  man  was,  scampered  down  the  lines, 
upsetting  gun-stacks  and  rousing  the  weary  sleepers  in 
•every  direction.  So  much  for  the  general  scene,  but 
Captain  Copp  is  responsible  for  the  following  side-light  : 

"  For  the  first  time  in  a  month  I  thought  it  safe  to  take 
my  clothes  off  for  the  night,  and  rolling  myself  nicely  up 
in  a  blanket  on  a  pile  of  corn-stalks,  I  was  soon  sound 
asleep.  The  alarm  found  me  minus  everything  but  a 
shirt,  but  without  waiting  to  clothe  myself  I  grabbed  my 
sword  and  revolver  and  sprang  to  the  colors  and  gave 
the  order  to  fall  in.  The  boys  have  n't  forgotten  my  pre 
dicament  to  this  day  ;  and  that  night,  long  after  every 
body  was  supposed  to  be  asleep,  every  once  in  a  while 
there  would  burst  upon  the  air  an  uproarious  '  Ha,  ha  !" 

A  week  slipped  away  in  the  camp  on  the  Yazoo,  and 
then  the  Ninth  corps  was  ordered  back  to  Cincinnati,  but 
was  obliged  to  wait  for  means  of  transportation.  The 
order  had  come  none  too  soon,  for  what  with  the  intense 
heat,  the  scanty  supply  of  proper  food,  and  the  impurity 
of  the  water,  the  men  began  to  feel  that  they  were  living 
in  solemn  times,  for  death  made  daily  inroads  upon  their 
number.  August  i,  Colonel  Titus,  who  had  stuck  to  his 
post  despite  his  intense  sufferings  from  chronic  diarrhea 
during  the  last  two  months,  was  granted  a  twenty  days 
furlough,  and  set  out  for  Cincinnati.  Those  who  were 
left  behind  could  only  hope  for  a  speedy  deliverance  from 
such  unwholesome  surroundings. 

The  following   morning    the    regiment    was     sent    oh 


XX 


306  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [August, 

picket  duty  to  the  road  leading  to  Yazoo  City,  and  for 
the  first  time  in  its  history,  when  on  such  duty,  the  colors 
were  taken  along.  This  road  was  near  the  northern 
limit  of  Haines's  Bluff,  and  commanded  a  magnificent 
view  of  the  surrounding  country.  On  the  left  lay  the 
frowning  fortifications  that  capped  the  bluff;  stretching 
away  to  the  right  were  the  broad  fields  of  a  princely 
cotton  plantation ;  at  the  foot  of  the  bluff,  creeping  slug 
gishly  along,  as  if  reluctant  to  yield  itself  to  the  swift 
flow  of  the  mighty  river,  was  the  dark-hued  "Poison 
Water;"  and  beyond  this,  and  far  away  to  the  north, 
south,  and  west,  a  vast  and  apparently  unbroken  expanse 
of  primeval  forest.  Like  a  mighty  sea  of  green  it 
seemed,  spread  out  over  the  level  bottom  lands  of  the 
Mississippi  valley,  the  only  sign  of  life  the  curling  smoke 
from  the  steamers  that  were  constantly  winding  their 
way  along  the  tortuous  course  of  the  "Father  of 
Waters." 

At  the  dress  parade  held  in  front  of  General  Griffin's 
head-quarters  August  4,  the  troops  had  the  pleasure  of 
listening  to  a  complimentary  order  from  General  Grant, 
in  which  it  was  requested  that  the  words  "  Vicksburg" 
and  "Jackson"  be  inscribed  upon  the  banners  of  the 
Ninth  Army  corps.  It  was  a  fitting  recognition  of  the 
heroic  endurance  of  sufferings  beside  which  death  on 
the  field  of  battle  could  have  no  terrors.  An  order  from 
General  Parke,  in  regard  to  embarking,  was  also  read, 
but  to  thousands  of  sick  and  dying  men  the  relief  would 
come  too  late. 

The  details  of  that  voyage  up  the  Mississippi,  the 
transfer  to  the  freight  cars,  in  which  the  sick  and  well 
must  take  their  chances,  like  cattle,  of  coming  out  alive 
at  the  end  of  the  journey,  the  long,  wearisome  ride 


1863.]  THE  MISSISSIPPI  CAMPAIGN.  307 

before  the  final  disembarkation  at  Nicholasville,  Ky., 
are  almost  too  horrible  for  belief,  though  the  story  must 
be  told  for  a  proper  appreciation  of  the  freedom  that  cost 
so  dearly. 

How  slowly  those  August  days  dragged  out  their 
tedious  length  !  When,  about  noon  of  the  8th,  the  order 
was  given  to  the  Ninth  New  Hampshire  to  "pack  up," 
the  camp  was  like  a  swarm  of  bees  suddenly  disturbed. 
The  men  were  not  burdened  with  an  extraordinary 
amount  of  clothing,  and  the  filling  of  their  haversacks 
or  "  grub  bags"  was  the  chief  item  of  preparation  for 
the  journey.  Would  you  like  to  know  how  a  soldier 
fares  on  a  trip  like  this  ?  One  of  Captain  Robinson's 
letters  furnishes  the  details:  "First,  we  pack  it  about 
two  thirds  full  of  hard-tack,  then  goes  in  the  meat  bag. 
I  have  in  mine  now  a  little  fried  pork  and  two  or  three 
pounds  of  raw  pork  or  bacon.  Then  come  the  coffee 
and  sugar  bags,  salt  bag,  pepper  bag,  bottle  of  Jamaica 
ginger,  knife,  fork,  and  spoon,  and  a  variety  of  articles, 
according  to  the  aesthetic  taste  of  the  owner.  As  I  had 
a  little  flour  on  hand,  I  made  it  into  doughnuts." 

The  first  of  the  month  all  the  sick  had  been  sent  up 
the  river  on  hospital  boats,  though  so  many  had  fallen  ill 
since  that  time  that  they  now  equalled  if  they  did  not 
outnumber  the  well,  and  it  was  a  merciful  Providence 
that  hid  the  future  from  them  all.  With  grim  satire  the 
band  struck  up  a  lively  tune  for  the  march  to  the  land 
ing,  those  who  were  able  to  walk  did  so,  and  the  ambu 
lances  with  the  sick  brought  up  the  rear.  So  suddenly 
did  the  attacks  of  swamp  fever  come  on  that  by  the  time 
the  landing  was  reached  Sergeant  Pulsifer  of  Company  E 
had  been  taken  so  violently  ill  that  he  fell  to  the  ground 
and  was  carried  on  board  by  his  comrades. 


308  NINTH  ArE  W  HAMPSHIRE.  [August, 

To  their  dismay  the  men  found  that  the  entire  brigade 
was  to  be  transported  in  one  small  boat,  the  David 
Tatum.  All  the  officers  were  quartered  on  the  middle 
or  cabin  deck,  occupying  every  berth  and  filling  the 
cabin  with  mattresses  at  night.  Outside  the  cabin,  and 
fore  and  aft,  the  sick  were  crowded  as  thick  as  they 
could  lie.  The  Sixth  New  Hampshire  occupied  the 
lower  deck,  together  with  all  the  horses  and  baggage 
belonging  to  the  brigade.  On  the  hurricane  deck  were 
the  Seventh  Rhode  Island  and  the  Ninth  New  Hamp 
shire,  with  no  protection  against  the  blistering  sun  or 
the  rain,  save  where  some  were  so  located  that  they 
could  stretch  a  tent  cloth  across  the  iron  rods  reaching 
from  the  deck  to  the  smoke-stacks. 

The  placard  "  Standing-room  only"  might  have  been 
truthfully  displayed,  for  so  crowded  was  the  boat  that 
the  men  were  obliged  to  take  turns  in  lying  down  to  rest, 
for  sleep  under  such  conditions  was  well  nigh. impossi 
ble.  It  was  nearly  dark  when  the  steamer  was  loosed 
from  her  moorings  and  the  journev  down  the  Yazoo 
begun.  It  was  an  ominous  beginning,  for  she  had  pro 
ceeded  only  a  few  miles  when  the  rudder  broke,  and  the 
captain  was  obliged  to  "  tie  up"  for  the  remainder  of  the 
night. 

There  was  a  silver  lining  to  this  cloud,  however,  for 
the  men  were  allowed  to  go  on  shore  and  make  coffee, 
and  not  a  few  improved  the  opportunity  to  spread  their 
blankets  for  a  nap.  Close  by  the  shore  to  which  the 
packet  was  tied  was  an  old  camping-ground,  which  had 
been  used  in  turn  by  the  Confederates,  the  Federals,  and 
the  contrabands.  The  last  inhabitants  had  evidently 
been  visited  by  a  pestilence  and  had  fled,  for  the  dilapi 
dated  tents  were  still  standing,  and  unburied  corpses  of 


1863.]  THE  MISSISSIPPI  CAMPAIGN.  309 

both  sexes  lay  upon  the  ground.  It  was  late  in  the 
afternoon  of  the  following  day  before  the  repairs  were 
finished,  and  the  arrival  of  the  steamer  Yankee  from 
Vicksburg  was  hailed  with  delight  by  the  weary,  rest 
less  soldiers.  Quartermaster  Moses  had  gone  overland 
to  Vicksburg  and  reported  the  situation,  in  consequence 
of  which  the  steamer  had  been  sent  up.  She  was  lashed 
alongside  the  Tatum,  the  crowded  decks  were  relieved 
of  a  portion  of  their  human  freight,  and  again  they  were 
steaming  down  the  "  river  of  death." 

Before  the  Mississippi  was  reached  greedy  death  had 
claimed  a  victim.  At  the  mouth  of  the  Yazoo  the 
steamer  stopped  to  coal  up,  and  while  this  was  going 
on  some  soldiers  went  ashore,  and  by  the  light  of  a 
dimly  burning  lantern  hollowed  out  a  grave  for  their 
dead  comrade  ;  then  the  corpse,  wrapped  in  the  only 
shroud  a  soldier  knows, — a  blanket — was  taken  on 
shore  in  a  skiff  and  placed  in  its  lonely  grave,  where 
the  footfall  of  friend  or  foe  would  never  break  the  soli 
tude.  Nothing  more  gloomy  or  depressing  could  be 
imagined ; — the  large  proportion  of  sick  on  board  the 
boat,  the  thick  murkiness  of  the  night,  the  deep,  black 
waters  of  the  slowly  rolling  river,  the  dense  forests 
whose  heavy  foliage  and  drooping  festoons  of  moss  turn 
even  daylight  into  darkness, — the  whole  scene  revealed 
by  the  dim  light  of  the  lanterns  was  weird  and  ghastly. 

At  four  o'clock  on  the  morning  of  the  loth  the  steamer 
entered  the  Mississippi,  and  it  was  a  grand  sight  to  watch 
the  prow  forcing  its  way  northward  against  the  turbulent 
waters.  Just  before  sunrise  another  corpse  was  carried 
below — and  the  journey  but  just  begun  !  Another  sad 
incident  of  the  morning  was  the  falling  overboard  of 
James  Kingsley  of  Company  K,  from  the  upper  deck  : 


310  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [August, 

so  swift  was  the  current  that  before  a  boat  could  be  low 
ered  he  was  lost  to  sight.  The  steamer  touched  shore 
at  a  negro  encampment  about  noon,  and  the  body  of  the 
soldier  who  had  died  in  the  early  morning  was  carried 
ashore  for  burial.  Chaplain  Gushee  read  the  service 
for  the  dead. 

The  following  day  there  were  two  deaths  before  noon, 
and  the  men  began  to  look  at  each  other  with  solemnly 
questioning  faces,  for  who  could  tell  whose  turn  would 
come  next.  The  boat  reached  Napoleon,  Ark.,  at  dark, 
and  came  to  anchor  just  in  season  to  get  the  full  force 
of  a  terrific  thunder-shower.  Those  on  the  upper  deck 
were  at  the  mercy  of  the  elements,  and  even  the  sick  on 
the  middle  deck  were  completely  drenched.  At  mid 
night  the  dead  were  taken  ashore  and  laid  to  rest  in  the 
depths  of  the  forest,  amid  the  low  rumbling  of  the  now 
distant  thunder  and  the  fitful  gleaming  of  the  lightning. 

The  steamer  was  speeding  steadily  on  its  way  the 
next  forenoon,  when  at  some  distance  ahead  signals 
were  displayed  on  the  shore.  As  the  boat  drew  nearer, 
it  was  seen  that  they  were  made  by  a  contraband,  who, 
with  his  wife  and  a  dozen  little  darkies,  was  begging 
pitifully  to  be  taken  aboard.  It  was  impossible  to  do 
so  in  the  present  crowded  condition,  and  as  the  steamer 
passed  them  unheeding,  and  they  turned  and  went  back 
into  the  forest,  one  could  imagine  their  bitter  disappoint 
ment,  their  sinking  of  heart,  their  lost  hope  of  freedom. 
Let  freeborn  men  boast  of  the  advantages  of  slavery, 
but  no  ranting  Abolitionist,  with  all  his  exaggerations, 
could  ever  depict  half  of  its  evils  and  sorrows. 

So  the  days  and  nights  wore  away.  The  number  of 
sick  increased  daily,  and  what  with  the  filth, — for  in  such 
close  quarters  neatness  was  impossible — the  swarms  of 


1863.]  THE  MISSISSIPPI  CAMPAIGN.  311 

vermin,  and  the  lack  of  proper  food — coffee  soaked  in 
hot  water  from  the  engine  and  raw  pork  and  hard-tack 
being  the  diet  for  sick  and  well  alike — it  is  no  wonder 
the  men  lost  heart,  and  longed  for  the  shore  and  any 
camp,  however  poor. 

Late  in  the  afternoon  of  the  I3th  the  bluffs  of  Memphis 
hove  in  sight,  and  as  the  steamer  neared  the  landing 
women  could  be  seen  flocking  to  the  levee,  ready  to 
barter  the  contents  of  their  well  filled  baskets  for  the 
soldier-boys'  scanty  pennies.  Before  a  plank  could  be 
put  out  the  boys  had  leaped  ashore  like  squirrels,  and 
trade  was  decidedly  lively  for  a  time.  There  was  no 
haggling  over  prices,  if  only  one  had  money  enough  to 
buy  what  fancy  or  appetite  first  lighted  upon.  Presently, 
without  any  warning,  the  boat  pushed  off,  and  dropped 
down  stream  some  two  miles  to  coal  up ;  and  as  she  did 
not  return  till  morning,  those  ashore  spent  the  night 
where  they  could  best  find  accommodation,  which  in 
most  cases  was  the  bare  planks  of  the  wharf. 

Many  of  the  weary  sleepers  awakened  the  next  morn 
ing  to  find  that  their  over-night  purchases  had  myste 
riously  disappeared.  No  one  considered  it  worth  while, 
however,  to  waste  breath  in  complaining  or  strength  in 
searching  for  the  lost  treasures  ;  they  simply  awaited  a 
chance  to  "  get  even."  The  steamer  returned  at  day 
break,  and  many  of  the  very  sick,  about  a  dozen  of  the 
Ninth  men  among  the  number,  were  taken  ashore  and 
carried  to  the  hospital,  with  small  prospect  that  any  of 
them  would  ever  return  to  their  comrades.  By  seven 
o'clock  Memphis  had  been  left  behind,  and  by  sunset 
the  next  day  the  steamer  was  rounding  Point  Pleasant, 
a  few  miles  below  Island  No.  10. 

Only  a  week  had  elapsed  since  they  had  bidden  fare- 


312  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [August, 

well  to  the  camp  on  the  Yazoo  river,  yet  to  men  shut  up 
in  a  charnel-boat,  with  death  staring  them  constantly  in 
the  face,  it  seemed  like  ages.  Sick  men  were  stretched 
out  all  over  the  boat,  from  pilot  house  to  coal  bunks,  and 
not  enough  well  men  were  left  to  care  for  them,  though 
it  was  little  enough  that  could  be  done  to  relieve  their 
sufferings. 

At  one  o'clock  in  the  afternoon  of  Sunday,  August  16, 
the  boat  reached  Cairo,  111.  Company  E  could  muster 
just  seven  able-bodied  men,  and  these  were  all  detailed 
to  assist  in  unloading  the  baggage.  Before  night  not  a 
man  that  could  crawl  but  managed  to  get  ashore  :  the 
bare  ground  seemed  so  clean  in  comparison  with  the 
filthy,  lousy  craft  where  they  had  been  nested  like  pigs. 

Several  of  the  officers  came  up  the  river  on  the  hospi 
tal  boat  Atlantic.  The  accommodations  for  the  sick 
were  vastly  superior  to  those  on  the  David  Tatum,  yet 
every  day  at  sunset  the  boat  would  be  drawn  up  to  the 
bank  of  the  river,  and  from  twenty  to  thirty  bodies 
would  be  taken  ashore  for  burial.  This  was  in  accord 
ance  with  the  orders  from  the  medical  department, 
which  would  not  allow  burials  at  any  other  time  of 
day.  Lieut.  C.  D.  Copp  and  Commissary  Sergeant 
Hanson  were  transferred  to  the  Atlantic  just  before 
Cairo  was  reached. 

On  the  arrival  of  the  boat  at  Cincinnati,  Major  Everett, 
who  was  very  ill  with  congestive  chills,  was  taken  to  the 
Gibson  House  by  Lieutenant  Mason.  The  lieutenant 
arranged  with  the  proprietor  of  the  hotel  for  the  care  of 
the  major,  but  became  ill  himself  immediately  afterwards 
and  was  confined  to  his  bed  at  the  time  of  the  major's 
death,  which  occurred  a  few  days  later.  Major  Ever 
ett's  body  was  embalmed  and  sent  to  his  home  in  New 


1863.]  THE  MISSISSIPPI  CAMPAIGN.  313 

London  by  the  proprietor  of  the  hotel,  who  was  a  New 
Hampshire  man. 

Lieutenant  Sprague  of  Company  F  was  carried  to  the 
Burnett  House,  and  from  there  to  the  hospital,  dying 
that  same  night.  Lieut.  C.  W.  Wilcox  was  given  a 
twenty  days  leave  of  absence,  and  accompanied  the 
remains  of  Lieutenant  Sprague  to  his  home  in  Win 
chester,  where  he  was  buried  with  Masonic  honors. 
Lieutenant-Colonel  Babbitt  was  taken  to  the  Spencer 
House,  where  he  was  cared  for  by  Colonel  Titus. 

On  the  I7th  another  delegation  of  the  sick  had  been 
transferred  to  the  hospital  boat  and  sent  up  the  Ohio. 
Pulsifer,  Bean,  Curtis,  and  Knight  from  Company  E 
were  among  these,  for  they  were  all  dangerously  ill ; 
but  many  of  the  sick  so  dreaded  a  separation  from  the 
regiment  that  they  begged  to  be  left  with  their  com 
rades,  even  if  it  were  to  die.  Late  in  the  evening  the 
regiment  was  ordered  to  the  station.  As  usual,  freight 
cars  were  the  accommodations  provided,  and  into  these 
the  men  were  packed,  thirty-five  in  a  car.  The  sick 
were  placed  on  the  rough  board  seats,  and  the  others 
lay  on  the  floor  beneath  and  between  them. 

In  this  manner,  parched  with  thirst  and  burning  with 
fever,  they  started  on  the  two  days  journey.  The  cars 
were  stifling  in  the  intense  heat,  and  the  scanty  supply 
of  water  rendered  the  sufferings  of  the  men  almost 
intolerable.  It  was  four  in  the  afternoon  of  the  i8th  of 
August  when  the  train  stopped  at  Centralia  for  coffee 
and  meat,  and  "  the  shoulder-straps  took  supper  at  the 
railroad  hotel."  At  Sandoval,  a  little  farther  along  the 
route,  the  men  disembarked  to  change  cars,  but  as  the 
train  had  not  yet  arrived  the  troops  were  ordered  to  biv 
ouac  for  the  night. 


3I4  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [August, 

At  daylight  the  cars  were  again  boarded,  and  all  the 
long,  hot  day  the  men  lay  stretched  out  upon  the  floor, 
while  the  train  sped  swiftly  on.  Towards  night  Vin- 
cennes  was  reached,  and  with  a  brief  stop  here  for 
coffee  there  was  no  other  break  in  the  monotony  of  the 
journey  until  the  arrival  at  Cincinnati,  about  noon  on 
the  following  day.  The  well  men  were  marched  through 
the  city,  given  a  good  dinner,  and  were  then  sent  across 
the  river  to  the  camp  on  the  Kentucky  side.  The  sick 
were  left  at  the  station  to  await  the  arrival  of  the  ambu 
lances,  and  reached  the  camp  about  dark.  As  illus 
trative  of  the  condition  of  the  men  as  they  lay  on  the 
platform,  Corporal  Mayo  says  that  even  when  he  saw 
the  baggage  trucks  coming  right  for  him  he  felt  so  sick 
that  he  did  n't  have  vitality  enough  to  draw  his  feet  up 
out  of  the  way. 

The  two  following  incidents  are  contributed  by  Ser 
geant  Button  : 

"Corporals  Elmer  Bragg  and  Charles  Day  of  Com 
pany  E,  sick  and  weary,  took  their  own  way  through 
the  city,  and  stopped  to  rest  on  the  steps  before  the  gate 
of  a  large  mansion  a  little  retired  from  the  street.  A 
lady  approached,  asked  their  names,  regiment,  where 
they  had  been,  and  where  they  were  going;  said  the 
house  was  her  home,  and  asked  them  to  come  in  and 
rest  a  while.  '  No,'  they  said,  «  we  must  be  going  on  to 
our  regiment.'  Then  she  pressed  her  invitation  with 
the  offer  of  something  to  eat,  and  in  other  ways  tried  to 
get  them  to  go  in.  But  'they  were  riot  hungry  and  must 
go  on,' they  said.  At  last  she  asked,  'Wouldn't  you 
like  a  bath?'  It  was  just  what  they  did  want,  and 
gladly  accepting,  they  were  soon  in  her  bath-room,  from 
which  they  came  out  a  half  hour  later  feeling  like  new 


1863.]  THE  MISSISSIPPI  CAMPAIGN.  315 

men.  The  lady  had  a  nice  lunch  spread,  and  now  the 
boys  were  ready  for  that.  Having  done  full  justice  to 
this,  they  left  their  '  good  Samaritan  '  with  thanks  on 
their  lips  and  abiding  gratitude  in  their  hearts.  Even 
the  rough  ways  of  life  are  in  spots  strewed  with  flowers." 

"  On  the  trip  from  Cincinnati  to  Cairo  the  train  passed 
at  full  speed  through  Washington,  Ind.  I  was  sitting 
in  the  open  door  of  a  freight  car  when  a  large  and  beau 
tiful  bouquet  of  flowers  came  into  my  lap.  A  piece  of 
paper  was  tied  to  it,  on  which  were  the  words  '  Compli 
ments  of  Stella  and  Mattie  Lane,  Washington,  Ind. 
God  bless  you,  boys  !  We'll  welcome  you  home,  when 
rebels  are  in  the  dust.'  The  flowers  faded,  but  I  have 
that  slip  of  paper  now.  At  Milldale  I  wrote  to  the 
ladies,  thanking  them  for  their  kind  token.  On  the 
return  from  Vicksburg  the  train  stopped  at  Washington, 
and  the  ladies  of  the  place  were  at  the  train  with  refresh 
ments.  I  asked  one  if  the  Misses  Lane  were  there. 
4  Why,  yes  ;  they  are  right  here,'  she  replied,  and  called 
to  them  ;  but  just  then  the  train  started,  and  so  that  inci 
dent  went  no  farther." 

It  was  only  a  brief  respite,  though  a  most  welcome 
one,  for  on  the  23d  the  regiment  was  ordered  to  report 
at  the  station  for  transportation.  The  sick  were  placed 
in  separate  cars  this  time,  and  made  up  more  than  half 
of  the  train.  On  arriving  at  Nicholasville  the  regiment 
went  into  camp  about  two  miles  outside  the  town,  where 
the  sick  seemed  at  last  to  have  a  chance  to  recover ;  but 
so  permeated  were  they  with  disease,  that  any  speedy 
improvement  was  out  of  the  question.  Chills  and  fever 
alternately  racked  their  feeble  frames,  but  they  were 
tenderly  cared  for  by  their  comrades-in-arms. 


3 1  6  NINTH  NE  W  HAMPSHIRE.  [September, 

September  9  the  sick  were  transferred  to  temporary 
hospitals  at  Paris,  Ky.,  where  regimental  head-quarters 
were  to  be  established.  Twice  before  the  regiment  had 
been  ordered  to  move,  but  surgeons  and  officers  alike 
protested,  for  if  the  order  had  been  enforced  two  thirds 
of  the  men  in  camp  must  have  been  carried  in  wagons. 
Colonel  Titus  and  Lieutenant-Colonel  Babbitt  were  on 
the  sick-list,  Adjutant  Chandler  was  absent  on  detail, 
Major  Everett  had  died  in  Cincinnati,  and  not  a  single 
commissioned  officer  was  present  for  duty.  But,  thank 
God,  they  were  back  in  old  Kentucky  once  more  ! 


CHAPTER   X. 

THE  MOVEMENT  FROM  KENTUCKY  TO  ANNAPOLIS,  AND 
AS  FAR  AS  BRISTOW  STATION. 

The  only  incident  that  broke  the  quiet  of  the  stay  in 
Kentucky  was  the  expedition  to  Mount  Sterling,  early  in 
December.  During  the  evening  of  December  3,  Colonel 
Titus  received  a  telegram  from  General  Boyle,  com 
manding  the  district  of  Kentucky,  announcing  a  prob 
able  attack  by  John  Morgan's  guerrillas  at  Mount  Ster 
ling,  and  ordering  him  to  re-enforce  the  Fortieth  Ken 
tucky  cavalry  with  his  command.  It  was  eleven  o'clock 
when  Colonel  Titus,  in  command  of  a  part  of  the  regi 
ment,  was  ready  to  start.  Horses  from  all  the  livery 
stables  in  Paris,  and  some  private  horses  were  taken,  as 
well  as  saddles,  and  by  confiscating  everything  in  the 
shape  of  horse-flesh  that  was  encountered  on  the  way, 
each  man  finally  bestrode  a  steed. 

Captain  Copp,  who  was  attending  a  "pahty"  that 
evening,  had  been  directed  to  gather  what  additional 
men  he  could  and  follow  as  soon  as  possible,  and  was  on 
the  road  about  an  hour  later.  On  the  way  over  Captain 
Copp  got  considerably  alarmed,  for  the  refugees  they 
were  continually  meeting  had  doleful  tales  to  tell  of  the 
doings  of  Morgan  and  his  men.  One  of  the  horses  gave 
out,  and  at  the  next  farm-house  the  captain  determined 
to  make  a  swap.  As  he  rode  up  to  the  door  a  woman 
appeared  at  one  of  the  upper  windows,  and  in  answer  to 
his  inquiries  declared  there  was  not  a  horse  on  the  place. 
In  the  mean  time  one  of  the  men  made  his  way  to  the 


3 1 8  NINTH  NE  W  HAMPSHIRE.  [December, 

barn,  and  there  found  a  good  horse.  An  old  man  then 
came  out,  and  pleaded  that  the  horse  might  be  left  him, 
as  it  was  all  that  he  had  to  do  the  farm  work.  War 
recognizes  no  necessities  but  its  own,  however,  and  the 
captain  took  the  horse,  but  promised  to  return  it  on  his 
way  back. 

Arrived  within  about  a  mile  of  Mount  Sterling,  and 
just  as  they  were  rising  a  hill,  the  captain  discovered  a 
picket  post  ahead.  The  story  told  by  the  refugees  was 
that  Colonel  Titus's  command  had  entered  the  town,  but 
that  it  had  afterwards  been  surrounded  by  the  raiders,  so 
the  gallant  captain  was  in  just  a  bit  of  a  quandary.  Gath 
ering  his  little  band  closely  together,  and  giving  them 
orders  to  be  ready  for  a  charge,  he  rode  boldly  on. 
"Who  goes  there?"  came  the  challenge  from  the  picket. 
"Friends,  with  the  countersign!"  returned  the  captain, 
and  the  boys  got  their  guns  ready.  Then  came  the 
question,  "Whose  command?"  That  was  the  uncertain 
time,  but  they  were  in  for  it  now.  "Colonel  Titus's 
command,  from  Paris  !"  was  the  response,  and  in  return 
a  cheerful  "All  right — come  on!"  On  entering  the 
town,  the  colonel  and  the  rest  of  the  command  were 
found  quartered  at  the  hotel,  except  those  who  were  sta 
tioned  on  the  outposts.  The  return  to  Paris  was  made 
on  the  6th. 

December  loth  the  following  men  were  detailed  on  the 
provost  guard  :  Sergts.  George  W.  McClure,  Stacy  W. 
Hall;  Corps.  C.  H.  Knight,  A.  R.  Wheeler,  J.  F. 
Evans;  Privates  G.  J.  Allen,  D.  C.  Barnard,  A.  E.  Bis- 
sell,  H.  A.  Clement,  E.  P.  Chapman,  F.  Dennis,  J.  Duf- 
ney,  M.  Ellis,  J.  F.  Foster,  L.  B.  Fellows,  P.  Hunt,  P. 
R.  Huntoon,  B.  D.  Leighton,  S.  D.  Pearsons,  J.  Shay, 
J.  Slyfield,  L.  Smith. 


SERGT.  HENRY  F.  PARTRIDGE,  Co.  I.  GEORGE  J.  ALLEN,  Co.  I. 


CORP.  MARSHALL  P.  WOOD,  Co.  I.  CORP.  GEORGE  C.  WILLSON,  Co.  I. 


1863.]  FROM  KENTUCKY  TO  ANNAPOLIS.  319 

Saturday,  the  I9th,  a  lot  of  recruits  for  the  Sixth  and 
Ninth  New  Hampshire  arrived  on  the  evening  train  from 
Cincinnati,  in  charge  of  Captain  Crafts  of  the  Fifth  New 
Hampshire  and  Captain  Durgin  of  the  Twelfth.  Cap 
tain  Copp  was  in  waiting  at  the  station,  with  a  detail  of 
men,  and  took  the  newcomers,  who  were  a  tough-look 
ing  lot,  to  the  court-house,  where  they  were  fed  and 
quartered  for  the  night. 

January  i,  1864,  the  Fortieth  Kentucky  mounted 
infantry  arrived  at  Paris,  in  response  to  an  order  for  the* 
Ninth  New  Hampshire  to  proceed  at  once  to  East  Ten 
nessee.  During  the  time  the  regiment  did  duty  on  the 
railroad,  the  men  won  the  confidence  of  all  the  people  in 
the  vicinity  by  their  manly  conduct  and  their  respect  for 
the  persons  and  property  of  the  citizens,  who  became 
much  attached  to  them.  But  the  attachment  of  the  sol 
diers  (and  of  some  of  the  officers)  was  even  stronger  than 
that  of  the  citizens  toward  them, — that  is,  in  certain 
instances — for  several  had  taken  unto  themselves  wives 
of  the  Blue  Grass  region,  and  when  the  regiment  finally 
went  away  many  of  the  men  marched  to  that  gay  old 
tune  "The  Girl  I  Left  Behind  Me  !" 

The  new  year  had  opened  with  a  blinding  snow-storm, 
and  in  consequence  of  the  severity  of  the  weather  Gen 
eral  Frye  telegraphed  for  the  regiment  to  remain  at  Paris 
until  further  orders,  which  came  on  the  nth.  In  the 
mean  time  the  citizens  of  Paris  had  drawn  up  a  petition, 
which  was  sent  to  the  general  commanding  the  depart 
ment,  requesting  that  the  regiment  be  allowed  to  remain 
as  long  as  troops  were  needed  on  the  railroad.  The 
officers  of  the  Ninth  gave  a  grand  ball  in  honor  of  the 
Fortieth  Kentucky,  the  compliment  was  returned,  and 
there  was  a  gay  and  festive  time  all  around. 


320  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [January, 

FROM    SEPTEMBER,    1863,    TO   JANUARY,    1864. 
By  Sergt.  N.  T.  Button. 

The  four  months  the  regiment  was  stationed  along  the 
Kentucky  Central  railroad  were  perhaps  as  comfortable 
as  any  it  experienced.  Although  at  first  there  was  much 
sickness,  and  some  of  our  comrades  died,  yet  with 
improved  living,  health  and  strength  came,  and  these 
renewed  our  cheerfulness  and  courage.  We  were  in 
the  midst  of  the  Blue  Grass  region,  perhaps  as  fertile 
and  productive  a  spot  as  there  is  in  the  country.  Com 
pany  E  was  quartered  at  Riser's  Station,  where,  divided 
into  two  squads,  we  guarded  two  bridges.  Near  each 
bridge  was  a  block-house,  which  made  comfortable 
quarters.  Duty  was  light,  with  only  an  hour  or  two  of 
drill  daily.  Hard-tack  and  salt  junk  were  discarded,  or 
exchanged  for  the  fat  of  the  land  in  the  shape  of  milk, 
butter,  eggs,  poultry,  and  other  good  "  fixins."  The 
people  around  were  hospitable,  and  often  invited  the  boys 
out  to  dinner  or  to  spend  an  evening.  Our  mail  came 
on  the  hour,  boxes  were  received  frequently  from  home, 
meetings  for  worship  were  held  regularly,  the  regi 
mental  strength  was  increased  by  recruits, — in  fact,  it 
was  a  recruiting  time  in  every  way,  and  gave  us  the 
vigor  for  the  long  marches  and  the  hard  campaigning 
of  the  next  year. 

The  year  before  (1862)  on  Thanksgiving  morning  I 
drew  a  pint  of  flour,  and  thought  I  would  make  a 
•"  minute  pudding"  of  it.  I  had  just  got  it  mixed  up 
with  water,  and  well  to  cooking,  when  the  company  was 
ordered  on  picket ;  so  tucking  the  whole  thing  in  my 
haversack,  the  cooking  was  finished  down  on  the  Rap- 
pahannock,  at  my  picket  post.  The  rest  of  the  boys 
had  fared  about  the  same.  So  we  determined  to  make 


1864-]  FROM  KENTUCKY  TO  ANNAPOLIS.  321 

up  for  lost  time.  We  chipped  in,  bought  three  pounds 
of  turkey  to  a  man,  all  the  materials  for  a  huge  plum- 
pudding,  and  plenty  of  mince  pies.  Corporal  Mayo 
and  myself  went  over  and  engaged  the  services  of  a 
colored  woman  for  the  baking.  She  had  never  made  - 
mince  pies,  but  we  told  her  how,  and  she  did  all  the 
cooking.  The  baking  was  done  in  a  large  "Dutch" 
oven.  All  came  out  "turned  to  a  nice  brown,"  and 
everyone  did  ample  justice  to  the  feast.  We  had  enough 
that  day.  There  was  a  fulness  that  was  -painful  with 
some  of  the  boys. 

At  Kiser  Station  one  man  was  always  kept  on  guard. 
He  carried  a  loaded  gun,  and  to  save  cleaning  the  relief 
guard  would  take  the  loaded  gun  instead  of  his  own. 
The  other  guns  were  rarely  loaded,  as  the  boys  had 
been  practising  bayonet  drill  for  some  time.  Every 
afternoon  when  the  train  passed  the  whole  company  was 
required  to  fall  into  line  near  the  station.  One  night, 
while  waiting  for  the  train,  one  of  the  men  in  sport 
began  to  practise  with  his  bayonet  on  the  guard  as  he 
paced  his  beat.  He  bothered  him  so  much  that  at  last  the 
guard  said,  *'  I  '11  shoot  you  if  you  do  n't  stop  !  "  and  suit 
ing  the  action  to  the  word,  he,  in  sport  also,  drew  up  and 
aimed  his  gun.  By  some  chance  it  went  off,  the  ball, 
which  otherwise  would  have  pierced  his  comrade's  heart, 
striking  the  head  of  his  ramrod,  and  shattering  it  into  a 
hundred  pieces.  It  was  a  narrow  escape,  and  there  was 
no  more  fooling  with  the  guard. 


Friday,  January  15,  the  regiment  set  out  for  Nicholas- 
ville,  and  from  there  proceeded  to  march  to  Camp  Nel 
son,  fourteen  miles  distant,  arriving  late  in  the  even- 

XXI 


322  NINTH  NE  W  HAMPSHIRE.  [January  r 

ing.  The  next  day  they  drew  five  days  rations  and 
went  into  camp.  Just  before  reaching  Camp  Nelson 
they  had  met  the  Sixth  New  Hampshire,  who  were  on 
their  way  home  for  their  re-enlistment  furlough,  and  had 
given  them  three  hearty  cheers  and  a  "  tiger." 

During  the  ten  days  stay  at  this  camp  the  regiment 
was  paid  off,  and  on  the  25th  of  January  turned  in  their 
old  Windsors  and  drew  new  Springfield  rifles  and  equip 
ments,  preparatory  to  the  march  to  East  Tennessee. 
Another  incident  was  an  order  of  General  Frye,  by 
which  eighteen  men  were  detailed  to  report  to  Lieu 
tenant  Terry,  A.  A.  Q.  M.,  "for  temporary  duty  in 
breaking  mules."  Pursuant  to  this  order,  five  men 
were  detailed  from  each  of  the  companies  I,  G,  and  F, 
and  three  men  from  Company  C  ;  but  the  boys  have 
never  been  able  to  get  a  satisfactory  answer  to  their 
queries  as  to  what  kind  of  a  "high  old  time"  the 
special  detail  enjoyed  in  the  performance  of  this 
"temporary  duty." 

On  Saturday,  the  3<Dth  of  January,  after  a  severe 
march  of  nearly  seventy  miles,  the  regiment  reached 
Camp  Burnside,  at  the  head  of  steamboat  navigation 
on  the  Cumberland  river,  for  a  force  was  needed  at 
this  time  to  protect  the  large  quantities  of  supplies 
which  had  been  landed  here  for  the  use  of  the  army. 
The  itinerary  of  the  journey  afforded  by  the  record 
in  the  diary  of  Quartermaster  Moses,  who  travelled 
with  the  supply  train  in  the  rear  of  the  regiment,  is 
both  succinct  and  suggestive  : 

"Jan.  25.    Camped  to-night  at  Camp  Dick  Robinson. 

"Jan.  26.    Left    Camp    Dick  Robinson,  and    arrived 

at  Lancaster  at  n  :  30  a.  m.     The  troops  moved  again 


1864.]  FROM  KENTUCKY  TO  ANNAPOLIS.  323 

at  2  p.  m.,  and  marched  within  two  miles  of  Stamford 
and  camped  for  the  night. 

"Jan.  27.  Troops  moved  at  7  a.  m.,  passing  through 
Stamford,  and  arrived  at  Hall's  Gap  about  noon. 

"Jan.  28.  Started  at  5  a.  m.,  going  through  Hall's 
Gap,  and  arrived  at  Waynesboro  at  noon.  Had  a 
slight  foretaste  of  the  roads  we  are  to  find,  I  expect, 
before  we  reach  Lancaster.  Left  Waynesboro  at  2 
p.  m.,  and  arrived  at  Cuba  at  half-past  five,  having 
gone  six  miles  in  the  afternoon  over  a  very  bad  road. 

"Jan.  29.  Broke  camp  at  7  a.  m.  A  citizens'  supply 
train  ahead  of  me  caused  much  delay.  Overtook  the 
regiment  at  noon.  Went  into -camp  a  mile  from  Som 
erset. 

"Jan.  30.  Broke  camp  at  7  a.  m.  Passed  through 
Somerset,  and  reached  Burnside  Point  at  4  p.  m.,  on 
the  worst  road  yet.  The  Seventh  Rhode  Island  is 
encamped  a  mile  from  us.  Furious  storm  of  rain  and 
wind  during  the  night." 

While  the  regiment  was  wrestling  with  all  these 
difficulties,  General  Schofield,  in  command  of  the 
department  of  the  Cumberland,  was  communicating 
with  General  Frye,  in  command  of  the  middle  district 
of  Kentucky.  "Why  don't  you  send  along  those 
re-enforcements?"  telegraphed  Schofield,  and  General 
Frye  ordered  Quartermaster  Moses  to  send  back  the 
answer — "All  the  re-enforcements  are  stuck  in  the 
mud  ;  "  and  they  were. 

On  Monday,  February  8,  three  steamers  loaded  with 
supplies  reached  Camp  Burnside,  the  first  that  had 
ascended  to  this  point  since  the  breaking  out  of  the 
war.  In  a  few  days  more  than  a  million  of  rations 


324  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [February, 

were  stored  here,  with  a  large  amount  of  clothing, 
forage,  and  ammunition,  and  every  day  long  trains 
of  pack  mules  were  sent  off  laden  with  these  supplies, 
for  Knoxville,  via  Cumberland  Gap. 

The  Ninth  had  a  fine  camping-ground  at  Point  Burn- 
side,  and  remained  here  until  the  latter  part  of  February, 
during  which  time  they  attended  faithfully  to  drills  and 
guard  duty,  principally  for  the  benefit  of  recruits. 
Guerrillas  were  now  causing  some  trouble  in  the  moun 
tain  districts,  and  in  order  that  they  might  not  become 
too  bold,  and  thus  endanger  the  line  of  communication 
with  Knoxville,  it  was  deemed  expedient  to  send  a  small 
Union  force  through  the  country.  Accordingly,  the 
First  Ohio  heavy  artillery  and  the  Ninth  New  Hampshire 
were  ordered  to  Knoxville  by  different  routes, — the 
former  to  do  duty  about  the  town,  and  the  latter  to  join 
the  Ninth  corps,  now  stationed  there. 

One  who  has  never  travelled  through  the  region  at 
that  season  of  the  year  can  form  no  idea  of  the  incon 
veniences,  not  to  say  hardships,  of  that  march.  After 
leaving  Somerset  there  was  little  to  remind  one  of  civil 
ization  till  the  vicinity  of  Knoxville  was  reached.  The 
regiment  went  by  a  route  which  had  been  very  seldom 
travelled,  and  through  a  country  but  which  was  thinly 
inhabited, — in  fact,  there  were  very  few  places  that  had 
even  a  name. 

Some  days  three  or  four  windowless  log  huts  would  be 
the  only  habitations  met  with.  There  were  no  roads 
deserving  the  name,  and  not  a  bridge  on  which  to  cross 
one  of  the  numerous  creeks  and  rivers  between  Somer 
set  and  Cumberland  Gap.  The  streams  which  could  not 
be  forded  were  crossed  by  ferries.  When  neither  of 
these  methods  was  available,  the  men  made  the  peril- 


1864.]  FROM  KENTUCKY  TO  ANNAPOLIS.  325 

ous  passage  over  the  swollen  streams,  sometimes  in 
single  file  on  a  high  log  foot-bridge,  or  in  the  same  way 
on  the  upper  rail  of  a  Virginia  fence.  On  one  occasion 
the  top  rail  of  a  fence  was  the  only  chance  for  crossing, 
and  the  swift  current  almost  reached  that.  One  young 
officer,  who  sported  a  bran-new  uniform,  dared  not 
venture  it,  and  asked  the  adjutant  to  let  him  ride  behind 
on  his  horse.  The  adjutant  consented,  the  officer  mount 
ed,  but  in  the  middle  of  the  current  he  somehow  lost  his 
hold,  slid  off  backwards  into  the  water,  and  lost  all  the 
starch  in  his  clothes.  The  boys  cheered,  but  quickly 
pulled  him  out,  and  set  his  feet  on  dry  ground  again. 
Then,  too,  the  coldness  of  the  weather  in  the  moun 
tain  district  rendered  it  necessary  for  the  men  to  carry  a 
larger  amount  of  luggage  than  usual.  Rations  were 
short,  and  pleasant  days  were  rare  exceptions.  Perhaps 
the  more  minute  description  of  a  single  day's  experience, 
as  chronicled  in  one  of  the  diaries,  may  convey  a  better 
idea  of  the  march  to  Knoxville  than  the  same  amount  of 
generalizing  : 

"  During  the  night  of  the  2pth  [February]  it  was  so 
cold  that  the  rain  froze  as  it  fell,  and  on  the  morning  of 
March  i  everything  was  covered  wdth  a  thick  coat  of 
ice.  We  were  ordered  to  proceed  on  our  march.  The 
men  packed  their  blankets,  which  if  not  wet  were  many 
of  them  very  damp,  and  with  difficulty  struck  and  rolled 
their  tents,  which  were  stiff  with  ice.  The  rain  contin 
ued.  Overhead  the  trees  were  loaded  with  ice,  beneath 
the  weight  of  which  the  bending  limbs  were  frequently 
broken,  falling  with  a  great  crash.  The  sight  above  us 
was  magnificent,  but  as  we  were  wading  through  mud 
and  water,  it  excited  very  little  poetical  feeling. 


326  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [March, 

"About  10  a.  m.  the  rain  changed  to  a  heavy  snow 
storm,  which  continued  the  rest  of  the  day.  The  almost 
numberless  streams  were  swollen  to  overflowing,  and 
many  of  the  men  waded  to  their  bodies  in  crossing  them. 
We  at  length  ascended  a  long,  steep  hill  or  mountain, 
and  descending  the  opposite  side,  reached  the  Rock- 
castle  river,  a  branch  of  the  Cumberland,  about  2  p.  m. 
There  was  an  old  mud-scow  for  a  ferry,  but  no  ferryman 
within  two  or  three  miles,  and  that  on  the  opposite  side 
of  the  river. 

"  We  determined  to  ferry  ourselves  over.  There  was 
no  hawser,  the  craft  being  propelled  by  setting  poles. 
One  load  of  about  twenty  men  was  finally  got  across, 
and  the  second  load  started,  when,  in  the  middle  of  the 
swollen  stream,  the  strong  current  and  deep  water  ren 
dered  the  scow  unmanageable,  and  carried  it  a  long 
distance  down  the  river  before  they  could  land.  She 
was  at  length  towed  back,  but  the  next  load  shared  a 
similar  fate.  It  now  became  evident  that  we  could  not 
all  cross  that  night,  and  besides,  we  learned  that  the 
teams  were  back  several  miles  and  unable  to  proceed. 
Three  companies  were  crossed  over,  with  the  colonel 
and  part  of  the  staff,  and  the  rest  were  ordered  back  to 
meet  the  teams. 

"The  men  had  been  standing  in  the  storm  till  they 
were  benumbed  or  aching  with  the  cold,  and  the  snow 
was  piled  high  on  their  hats  and  knapsacks,  sifting 
down  their  necks  occasionally,  and  rendering  them  as 
uncomfortable  as  could  be  imagined.  Slowly,  under 
their  heavy  burdens,  they  retraced  their  steps  through 
the  snow  and  mud  over  the  mountain,  and  about  dark 
turned  into  a  field  to  pass  the  night.  We  stacked  our 
guns,  scraped  the  snow  from  the  ground,  pitched  our 


1864.]  FROM  KENTUCKY  TO  ANNAPOLIS.  327 

tents,  gathered  wood  and  made  huge  fires  in  front  of 
them,  broke  boughs  from  the  cedar  trees,  from  which 
we  melted  the  ice  by  holding  them  over  our  fires,  spread 
them  in  our  tents,  drank  our  coffee,  rolled  ourselves 
together  in  our  blankets,  and  slept  sweetly  and  soundly, 
as  though  between  'bleached  linen'  on  •«  geese-feather 
beds.'  " 

Another  version  of  the  march  to  Rockcastle  river  is 
found  in  a  letter  written  by  Lieut.  C.  W.  Wilcox,  under 
date  of  March  2,  and  is  fully  as  graphic  in  its  details  : 

"  .  .  .  Whilst  I  have  an  opportunity  I  will  write  a 
few  lines  with  a  pencil,  the  only  means  I  have  at  hand, 
and  I  don't  know  when  I  may  have  another  opportunity, 
neither  do  I  know  when  I  shall  be  able  to  send  this,  as 
there  are  no  post-offices  here,  and  it  is  several  miles  to 
any  communication.  .  .  .  We  had  orders  one  day 
to  start  immediately  for  Knoxville.  On  the  next  it  was 
countermanded,  and  we  received  another  to  start  imme 
diately  for  Cumberland  Gap,  which  we  did  on  the  morn 
ing  of  February  27,  and  since  that  date  the  Ninth  New 
Hampshire  has  seen  the  roughest  time  that  it  ever  has 
since  it  has  been  in  the  service,  which  is  saying  a  good 
deal.  I  have  three  recruits  in  my  company  who  have 
been  in  the  rebel  service  two  years,  and  they  say  this 
beats  anything  they  have  ever  experienced  yet. 

"After  receiving  the  order,  we  were  directed  by  the 
colonel  to  make  out  our  pay-rolls  that  night,  as  many  of 
them  as  we  could,  as  we  should  have  to  stop  somewhere 
and  be  mustered  on  the  29th. 

"This  was  a  poser  for  me,  as  my  orderly  sergeant 
was  sick,  but  I  pitched  in,  and  by  writing  until  sun-up 
the  next  morning  (without  a  wink  of  sleep)  I  had  them 


328  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [February, 

all  done  and  right, — two  other  companies  besides  being 
all  that  did  get  them  done, — some  because  they  could  not, 
and  others  because  they  thought  they  would  have  a  bet 
ter  time  and  not  be  broken  of  their  rest ;  but  experience 
had  taught  me  that  the  only  time  to  do  anything  was 
when  there  was  an  opportunity,  be  it  either  night  or  day. 
True,  I  did  not  feel  much  like  marching  next  day.  .  .  . 

"The  assembly  beat  the  next  morning  at  seven,  and 
we  started  at  eight  o'clock  that  morning  (the  27th).  It 
was  very  pleasant,  and  good  going,  so  that  we  reached 
Somerset  early  in  the  afternoon,  where  we  stopped  over 
night,  starting  early  the  next  morning  (the  28th).  We 
marched  all  day,  making  about  eighteen  miles  over  hills 
and  mountains,  on  what  they  call  here  a  road,  but  you 
would  hardly  call  it  a  coiv-fath, — halting  at  night  at  a 
place  called  Dallas.  There  were  but  two  log  houses, 
and  a  log  church  where  we  officers  stayed  through  the 
night,  as  the  train  did  not  get  up  with  us  and  we  had 
neither  tents  nor  blankets  ;  but  the  church  was  just  the 
thing  for  the  occasion,  and  we  'dedicated'  it  in  good 
earnest.  It  was  built  wholly  of  logs  and  without  finish. 
At  one  end  there  was  a  fire-place  occupying  two  thirds 
of  its  width,  so  you  may  bet  we  did  not  sleep  cold  or 
wet.  It  commenced  raining  just  before  we  halted,  which 
was  in  the  woods,  about  sixty  rods  from  the  church. 

"  I  was  officer  of  the  day,  and  about  ten  o'clock,  just 
as  I  had  dropped  asleep,  the  colonel  woke  me  up,  tell 
ing  me  to  post  a  picket  guard  a  third  of  a  mile  out,  and 
around  camp.  It  was  raining  in  perfect  torrents,  and  as 
dark  as  it  ever  was  since  the  world  began,  with  heavy 
timber  and  underbrush  to  pass  through,  without  the 
slightest  knowledge  of  the  country.  I  assure  you  it  was 
not  a  very  pleasant  undertaking,  but  I  could  not  com- 


1864.]  FROM  KENTUCKY  TO  ANNAPOLIS.  329- 

plain,  as  I  could  return  to  my  quarters  after  posting  the 
men,  who  were  from  my  company.  They  had  been  on 
rear-guard  all  day,  and  had  gone  to  bed  without  supper 
(their  three  days  rations  being  out  .and  the  trains  not 
within  three  miles).  It  was  hard  to  order  them  out  to 
stand  on  their  posts  all  night,  without  fire  or  shelter,  but 
they  knew  their  duty,  and  they  were  on  hand  without  a 
murmur  (except  from  some  of  the  new  men),  though 
not  without  some  jocose  remarks  on  the  subject  of 
'Uncle  Abe'  and  hard-tack. 

"The  next  morning  (the  29th)  it  rained  as  hard  as 
ever,  and  the  wind  had  changed  to  the  north-east,  grow 
ing  colder  all  day,  so  that  by  night  the  rain  froze  as  fast 
as  it  fell.  We  remained  there  all  day,  waiting  for  the 
trains  to  come  up  so  that  we  could  get  more  rations  and 
our  papers  to  muster  by.  The  companies  were  all  mus 
tered  before  dark,  and  those  that  had  not  got  their  rolls 
finished  went  to  work  and  did  them  before  morning.  It 
rained  all  night,  as  it  did  in  the  morning,  but  we  started 
at  seven  o'clock  the  first  of  March,  as  it  was  twenty-two 
miles  to  the  nearest  post,  and  we  had  but  five  days 
rations  on  board  the  trains,  and  the  road,  what  there  was 
of  it,  had  got  to  be  swimming  with  mud.  Truly  we 
were  seeing  '  the  winter  of  our  discontent  made  glorious' 
— by  a  summer's  eve. 

"  Our  course  lay  through  a  dense  forest,  and  in  five 
miles  I  saw  but  one  log  cabin,  with  a  small  open  space 
cleared  around  it.  The  trees  were  heavily  loaded  with 
ice,  and  it  was  really  dangerous  to  pass,  as  limbs  and 
trees  were  continually  breaking  and  falling,  keeping  the 
pioneer  corps  busy  with  their  axes  clearing  up  ahead. 

"  Every  little  stream  was  swollen  to  high-water  mark, 
and  we  had  not  proceeded  more  than  a  half  mile  before  we 


33°  NINTH  NE  W  HAMPSHIRE,  [March, 

waded  a  stream  waist  deep.  This  was  perfectly  awful, 
for  the  weather,  as  well  as  the  water,  was  almost  freez 
ing.  I  was  provided  with  a  good  pair  of  boots  and  a 
rubber  coat,  but  these  were  of  no  avail,  except  the  latter 
to  keep  the  shoulders  dry.  Shoes  were  just  as  good  as 
boots,  and  even  better  in  this  case,  as  you  had  to  carry 
less  water.  To  get  them  off  and  on  was  next  to  an 
impossibility.  Thus  we  marched  on,  crossing  a  half 
dozen  streams  which  were  almost  deep  enough  to  carry 
us  down  stream.  It  commenced  snowing  about  ten  in 
the  forenoon,  and  snowed  as  hard  as  ever  I  saw  it,  so 
that  by  night  it  was  four  inches  deep. 

"We  arrived  at  this  place  (Rockcastle  river)  at  one 
o'clock  in  the  afternoon.  There  is  but  one  house  very 
near  here.  It  is  a  log  one,  and  occupied  by  the  ferry 
man,  his  wife,  wife's  mother  and  sister,  and  a  half  dozen 
little  ones,  with  but  one  room  in  the  house.  This  is  six 
miles  from  where  we  started  in  the  morning.  We 
remained  here  until  four  o'clock,  waiting  for  the  ferry 
man  to  come,  he  being  away,  during  which  time  we 
were  standing  in  the  wet  and  cold ;  and  when  he  did 
come,  he  was  unable  to  ferry  but  three  companies  across 
before  dark,  on  account  of  the  swollen  and  rapid  current 
of  the  river.  So  the  colonel  took  the  three  companies 
that  had  crossed,  and  went  on  to  Flat  Lick,  which  is 
sixteen  miles  farther,  with  but  two  houses  between  here 
and  there  ;  and  Lieutenant-Colonel  Babbitt  was  left  in 
charge  of  us  (the  remainder  of  the  regiment),  with 
orders  to  wait  here  until  the  trains  came  up.  So  we 
went  into  camp,  and  what  fence-rails  there  were  near 
were  soon  converted  into  firewood,  and  a  stack  of  flax 
was  turned  into  beds  to  sleep  on  in  less  time  than  I  can 
write  it. 


1864.]  FROM  KENTUCKY  TO  ANNAPOLIS.  331 

"But  we  officers  were  the  worst  off  this  time,  for  our 
blankets  were  all  on  the  trains,  but  with  my  woollen  and 
rubber  overcoat,  with  a  pile  of  rails,  I  managed  to  get 
warm  and  partly  dry,  with  some  cold  sleep  before  morn 
ing.  This  morning  the  sun  was  clear,  and  at  this  time 
(four  o'clock  in  the  afternoon)  it  is  quite  warm  and 
pleasant,  and  finds  me  sitting  on  a  log  before  a  huge 
fire  writing  to  you — and  do  n't  I  think  of  you  and  your 
comfortable  home  !  The  trains  have  come,  and  I  have 
sent  the  boys  after  my  tent  and  blankets,  so  I  shall  sleep 
warm  to-night.  They  say  the  woods  here  are  full  of  deer 
and  wild  turkeys,  although  I  have  not  seen  any  as  yet." 

It  was  two  days  before  the  teams  and  the  rest  of  the 
men  succeeded  in  crossing  the  river,  and  then  the  com 
mand  moved  on  to  the  log-hut  town  of  London.  The 

o 

road  had  been  very  muddy,  and  the  fifteen  miles  was 
through  a  nearly  unbroken  expanse  of  forest,  making  the 
progess  of  the  troops  both  slow  and  toilsome.  Indeed, 
all  the  southern  part  of  Kentucky  seemed  to  be  as  wild 
and  rough  as  the  central  portion  of  the  state  had  been 
rich  and  beautiful,  and  the  contrast  between  the  inhabi 
tants  of  the  two  sections  was  equally  marked. 

London  was  now  a  small,  dilapidated  town,  but  its 
general  appearance  would  lead  one  to  think  it  had  been 
quite  a  thriving  place  before  the  war  broke  out.  There 
was  no  church,  but  quite  a  large  brick  school-house,  and 
this  plainly  showed  the  marks  of  soldiers  and  their  bullets. 
There  were  two  hotels  and  four  or  five  stores,  which 
were  only  kept  open  by  the  patronage  of  the  soldiers 
stationed  there,  and  those  passing  through.  There  had 
been  a  great  deal  of  bushwhacking  in  this  section  of  the 
country,  and  earthworks  were  to  be  seen  on  nearly  every 
hill-top  in  sight  of  the  town. 


33  2  NINTH  NE  W  HAMPSHIRE.  [March, 

The  settlers  were  mostly  from  the  "poor  white  trash" 
of  the  South,  indolent,  totally  devoid  of  ambition,  living 
chiefly  on  "hog  and  hominy,"  and  dressing  in  a  coarse 
homespun  cloth.  Every  man  kept  a  "  dorg"  and  a  gun, 
and  gave  all  his  attention  to  these,  leaving  the  corn-patch 
and  pigs  to  the  care  of  the  women.  While  the  troops 
were  waiting  at  the  river  several  of  the  men  called  on 
the  "nabob"  of  the  vicinity,  who  had,  in  addition  to  his 
"mansion,"  a  wretched  little  saw-mill  and  a  one-run 
grist-mill. 

The  house  was  a  one-room  log  affair,  about  fourteen 
by  eighteen,  and  not  half  as  neat  and  comfortable  as  a 
good  stable.  A  big  fire-place  filled  up  one  end,  two  beds 
stood  in  the  other,  and  the  housewife's  loom,  stretching 
across  the  middle  of  the  room,  left  but  little  space  for  the 
crazy  table  and  stools.  On  a  rude  shelf  over  the  fire 
place  were  a  couple  of  cracked  pitchers,  half  a  dozen 
plates,  a  Dutch  oven,  a  few  buckets  and  gourd  cups, 
two  rifles  and  powder  flasks, — and  this  completed  the 
inventory  of  the  family  possessions.  And  yet  they  were 
positively  wealthy  as  compared  with  their  poorer  neigh 
bors  ! 

The  supply  of  beef  cattle  had  accompanied  the  trains 
in  the  journey  across  the  mountain,  and  as  they  fared 
worse  for  rations  than  the  men  did,  it  was  a  common 
report  before  the  Gap  was  reached  that  when  the  butch 
ers  killed  one  of  these  "lean  kine  "  they  were  obliged 
to  cover  it  with  a  blanket  in  order  to  have  it  cast  shadow 
enough  so  that  they  could  see  where  to  strike. 

A  pathetic  incident  occurred  as  the  command  was 
marching  through  the  town  of  Barboursville,  when  an 
old,  white-haired  man  came  alongside  the  regiment  and 
asked  the  privilege  of  marching  a  short  distance  under 


1864.]  FROM  KENTUCKY  TO  ANNAPOLIS.  333 

the  "  old  flag."  Several  times  he  exclaimed  "Thank 
God,  I  see  the  old  colors  again!"  and  finally  turned  to 
go  back  with  the  tears  streaming  down  his  cheeks. 

Cumberland  Gap  was  reached  March  n,  and  as  the 
rations  were  completely  exhausted,  and  the  teams  were 
far  in  the  rear  waiting  for  bridges  to  be  built  so  that  the 
streams  could  be  crossed,  the  men  had  a  somewhat  novel 
experience  in  obtaining  temporary  supplies.  The  monu 
ment  marking  the  corner  of  the  states  of  Kentucky,  Vir 
ginia,  and  Tennessee  stood  just  beside  the  road  where 
it  passes  over  the  highest  ground  in  the  Gap.  The  gar 
rison  and  government  storehouses  were  within  the  Ten 
nessee  boundaries,  and  the  camp  was  in  Kentucky,  so 
the  men  lodged  in  Kentucky,  went  through  Virginia 
into  Tennessee  and  drew  rations,  and  returned  to  Ken 
tucky  to  breakfast. 

Two  days  were  spent  in  the  camp  on  the  mountain 
side.  Most  of  the  men  put  in  the  time  drying  and  clean 
ing  their  clothing,  which  was  in  a  sorry  condition,  for 
they  had  all  long  since  ceased  to  think  of  trying  to  keep 
any  portion  of  their  lower  extremities  dry,  but  waded 
through  mud,  slush,  water,  or  anything  that  came  in 
the  way  and  was  less  than  three  feet  deep.  Paymaster 
Scoville  overtook  the  command  during  the  stay  here, 
and  the  men  drew  pay  for  January  and  February. 

It  took  some  lively  scrambling  to  get  to  the  summit  of 
the  mountain,  but  the  few  who  made  the  venture  felt  well 
repaid  for  the  climb.  To  the  south  lav  East  Tennessee, 
with  the  Alleghany  mountains  on  the  North  Carolina 
border  for  a  background  ;  to  the  east  was  the  pass,  in 
which  the  camps  of  two  thousand  men,  a  few  build 
ings  of  ante-bellum  date,  and  several  government 
storehouses  and  barracks  were  clustered,  and  beyond, 


334  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [March, 

stretching  away  in  ragged  outline  till  it  was  lost  in  the 
distance,  rose  the  steep  and  rugged  mountain  ;  a  narrow 
but  pretty  valley  skirted  the  northern  side,  and  was  shel 
tered  from  the  chilling  winds  by  a  range  of  forest-clad 
hills ;  on  the  west  the  mountains  continued  in  wavering 

c5 

but  unbroken  line  vas  far  as  the  eye  could  reach. 

Late  in  the  afternoon  of  the  second  day  the  trains 
came  up,  and  the  command  moved  on  through  the  Gap 
and  went  into  camp  about  a  mile  beyond.  The  roads 
were  in  better  condition  beyond  the  Gap,  and  on  the 
1 4th  no  less  than  eighteen  miles  was  covered  before 
dark.  Guerrillas  had  been  seen  two  or  three  times  dur 
ing  the  day  on  the  neighboring  hills,  and  as  a  precau 
tionary  measure  Company  K,  under  Lieutenant  Allen, 
was  sent  forward 'to  guard  the  ferry  across  Clinch  river, 
some  three  miles  in  advance.  Near  the  river  they  dis 
covered  what  appeared  to  be  a  camp  of  guerrillas,  and 
came  back  with  this  report.  Captain  Smith  of  Company 
B,  with  ten  men,  was  sent  out  to  reconnoitre.  Colonel 
Titus  called  for  a  volunteer  to  go  ahead  and  challenge 
the  pickets,  and  Ford  of  Company  F  stepped  out  and 
said,  "  I  am  the  man!"  They  set  out  for  the  supposed 
camp,  and  Ford,  going  on  ahead,  discovered  nothing 
more  formidable  than  some  smouldering  log-piles  which 
a  farmer  had  fired  the  day  before.  It  was  hard  on  to 
midnight  when  the  thoroughly  disgusted  men  got  back 
to  camp. 

Considerable  time  was  consumed  in  getting  the  com 
mand  across  the  river  the  next  morning,  but  the  twelve 
miles  covered  by  four  o'clock  had  taken  them  out  of  the 
woods  and  hills  into  a  more  open  country,  and  as  the 
teams  were  nearly  used  up  it  was  decided  to  go  no  far 
ther  that  night.  It  was  not  long,  however,  before  a 


1864.]  FROM  KENTUCKY  TO  ANNAPOLIS,  335: 

Union  man  came  into  camp  and  reported  that  a  com 
pany  of  guerrillas  was  at  a  point  a  few  miles  distant.  It 
was  said  that  they  had  been  stealing  sutlers'  goods,  and 
had  encamped  near  a  distillery  owned  by  an  influential 
Confederate,  and  that  the  officers  were  now  at  his  house. 
Lieutenant  Sampson  commanded  one  party  of  twenty 
men,  and  Captain  Buswell  another. 

The  still  was  found  and  destroyed,  and  the  owner  cap 
tured.  His  wife  and  daughter  tried  to  follow  him  to 
camp,  and  Lieutenant  Burnham  was  detailed  to  "  see 
them  home."  They  proved  to  be  somewhat  intractable 
to  his  gentle  persuasions,  but  after  a  little  he  succeeded 
in  getting  them  to  "  about  face"  and  "  forward  march,"" 
towards  home.  No  guerrillas  were  found,  but  there  was 
plenty  of  apple-jack  and  sugar,  and  the  parties  got  back 
by  daylight  the  next  morning,  well  "  loaded"  with  the 
spoils. 

By  seven  o'clock,  on  the  morning  of  the  i6th,  the 
command  was  on  the  move,  and  by  five  in  the  after 
noon  had  made  seventeen  miles  and  bivouacked.  The 
route  had  been  through  a  splendid  farming  country, — 
rolling,  well  watered  and  timbered — but  most  of  the 
inhabitants  had  disappeared,  and  many  of  the  buildings 
had  been  burned.  The  night  before,  the  guerrilla  party 
had  noticed  a  mule  with  the  U.  S.  brand  at  one  of  the 
places  they  had  visited,  and  as  Quartermaster  Moses 
was  anxious  to  secure  the  animal  to  replace  one  lost 
from  his  teams,  he  asked  Captain  Buswell  to  let  him 
have  a  man  to  go  back  with  him  to  get  it. 

The  captain  suggested  Lemar,  one  of  the  French 
recruits,  as  a  good  one  for  this  duty,  but  the  quarter 
master  demurred, — on  the  ground  that  he  was  green, 
didn't  understand  the  language,  and  if  there  should  be 


336  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [March, 

any  trouble,  would  be  of  little  assistance.  "Well," 
said  the  captain,  "talk  with  him  a  few  minutes,  and 
see  what  you  think  of  it  then."  Lemar  was  called  up, 
and  after  a  while  was  made  to  understand  what  was 
wanted  of  him.  "Ah,  me  see, — get  mule  back  there 
where  Burnham  charge  bay'net  on  dog — ha,  ha ! " 
"Well,"  said  the  quartermaster,  "what  will  we  do  if 
the  old  reb  out  there  won't  let  the  mule  go — says  we 
sha'n't  have  him?"  After  a  moment's  reflection  Lemar 
seemed  to  comprehend  the  situation.  "Me  go  there, 
me  find  mule,  old  r-reb  say  mule  no  go  !  !  !  ah  !  !  !  me 
muskit  say  mule  go  !  "  and  the  excitable  little  French 
man  gave  his  rifle  a  flourish  as  if  he  were  bayoneting 
a  particularly  formidable  foe.  "You'll  do!"  said  the 
quartermaster,  and  away  they  went.  Before  noon  they 
rejoined  the  regiment,  the  Frenchman  riding  the  mule, 
and  looking  every  inch  a  conqueror. 

Knoxville  was  reached  at  noon  on  the  lyth,  and  the 
regiment  went  into  camp  in  a  pine  forest  about  a  mile 
and  a  half  to  the  north-west  of  the  city.  The  camp  was 
in  plain  sight  of  the  town,  and  of  Fort  Saunders,  where 
the  Ninth  corps  had  resisted  the  fierce  attack  of  Long- 
street's  forces,  in  November,  1863,  and  had  paid  off  the 

• 

"Johnnies"  for  Fredericksburg.  Rations  and  ammuni 
tion  were  drawn,  in  anticipation  of  the  advance  to  meet 
the  corps. 

Late  in  the  afternoon  of  the  ipth  a  battalion  drill  was 
ordered,  but  the  men  had  been  out  only  a  short  time 
when  they  were  sent  back,  with  fifteen  minutes  in  which 
to  pack  up.  At  the  end  of  the  allotted  time  a  move  of 
about  a  mile  was  made,  and  the  regiment  went  into 
camp  with  its  old  brigade  in  the  Ninth  corps,  which 
had  just  arrived  from  the  front.  It  was  good  to  be  at 


CORP.  LEWIS  W.  ALDRICH,  Co.  1.  N.  BYRON  CHAMBERLAIN,  Co.  I. 


I 


CORP.  JAMES  H.  MATTHEWS,  Co.  I.  CORP.  CHARLES  H.  KNIGHT,  Co.  I. 


1864.]  FROM  KENTUCKY  TO  ANNAPOLIS.  337 

home  again,  for  all  the  time  of  its  long  separation  from 
the  corps  the  regiment  had  been  under  the  orders  of 
General  Frye  of  the  Twenty-third  corps. 

The  next  movement  of  the  Ninth  New  Hampshire 
was  to  be  to  Annapolis.  When  General  Burnside  had 
assumed  the  command  of  the  Ninth  corps,  it  was  with 
orders  to  "recruit  and  fill  up  the  old  regiments,"  and 
to  increase  its  strength  to  the  number  of  "  50,000  men, 
for  such  service  as  the  war  department  might  see  fit  to 
delegate  to  them."  The  task  of  recruiting  had  been 
carried  on  with  great  activity  during  the  early  part  of 
1864,  and  on  the  8th  of  March  Annapolis  was  selected 
as  the  rendezvous  for  the  corps  by  the  secretary  of  war. 
The  new  regiments  were  sent  to  this  point  as  fast  as 
their  organization  was  completed,  and  the  regiments 
which  had  passed  the  winter  in  East  Tennessee  and 
Kentucky  were  also  ordered  thither. 

Preparations  for  the  journey  were  at  once  begun. 
The  sick,  wounded,  and  baggage  were  to  go  by  rail, 
and  the  rest  were  to  "hoof  it"  as  far  as  Nicholasville. 
Quartermaster  Moses  was  detailed  as  acting  brigade 
quartermaster,  and  Lieut.  Edward  Greene  was  ap 
pointed  acting  regimental  quartermaster.  Colonel  Car- 
ruth  was  in  command  of  the  brigade,  Colonel  Titus  of 
the  division,  and  General  Ferrero  of  the  column. 

By  eight  o'clock  on  the  morning  of  the  2ist,  the 
column  was  on  the  road  north,  taking  the  route  via 
Point  Burnside  for  Camp  Nelson.  The  roads  were 
good  and  through  a  fine  country,  and  as  the  men  were 
unincumbered  with  any  baggage  the  march  was  made 
with  very  little  discomfort,  compared  with  previous 
experiences.  The  Clinch  river  was  crossed  on  the  22d, 
and  by  three  in  the  afternoon  fourteen  miles  of  the  dis- 

XXII 


338  NINTH  NE  [V  HA M 'PS 'HIRE.  [ M arch, 

tance  to  Jacksboro  had  been  covered.  It  had  been 
snowing  since  morning,  and  the  men  had  faced  the 
storm  nearly  all  the  way,  so  they  were  not  in  the  least 
sorry  when  they  saw  the  head  of  the  column  come  to 
a  halt,  and  the  order  was  given  to  turn  into  the  woods 
and  camp  for  the  night. 

The  next  day  the  troops  passed  through  Jacksboro, 
and  to  the  foot  of  the  mountains  a  few  miles  beyond, 
where  a  halt  was  made  to  draw  rations.  A  five  days 
supply  of  hard-tack  and  bacon  was  soon  stowed  away  in 
the  haversacks,  the  teams  which  had  brought  the  sup 
plies  were  sent  back  to  Knoxville,  and  with  them  such 
of  the  men  as  were  sick,  and  unable  to  make  the  hard, 
rapid  march.  Then,  with  the  inner  man  well  fortified 
by  a  substantial  meal,  about  noon  the  men  began  the 
ascent  of  the  mountain.  The  road  was  both  steep  and 
rough,  and  it  was  sunset  before  the  troops  bivouacked 
near  the  summit. 

For  three  days  it  alternately  snowed  and  rained,  but 
still  the  men  pressed  wearily  on,  wading  through  mud 
and  slush  and  soaked  to  the  skin.  The  country  was  a 
perfect  wilderness,  and  often  for  miles  the  only  sign  of 
civilization  would  be  an  acre  or  two  of  clearing  with  its 
wretched  log  shanty,  and  even  that  was  generally 
deserted.  When,  on  the  25th,  at  half-past  ten  in  the 
forenoon,  the  head  of  the  column  crossed  the  state  line 
from  Tennessee  into  Kentucky,  the  band  struck  up, 
**  Oh,  a' n't  you  glad  you  are  getting  out  of  the  wilder 
ness  !"  and  the  whole  command  took  up  the  strain  and 
made  the  woods  ring  again  and  again. 

The  night  of  the  28th  there  was  a  heavy  rain,  which 
continued  at  intervals  through  the  following  day,  and 
wound  up  with  a  blustering  snow-storm  just  at  night. 


1864.]  FROM  KENTUCKY  TO  ANNAPOLIS.  339 

Hall's  Gap  was  reached  by  two  o'clock,  and  the  troops 
were  glad  to  go  into  camp.  The  rations  that  were  drawn 
here  included  for  meat  some  genuine  "  mess"  pork,  and 
as  they  had  been  dining  on  bacon — or  "slab-side" — 
for  quite  a  while,  the  men  looked  upon  this  as  a  stroke  of 
good  fortune.  They  were  now  nearing  the  end  of  the 
journey,  and  stringent  orders  against  straggling  were 
issued  that  evening. 

Two  days  more,  and  they  were  in  camp  near  Nicholas- 
ville — the  long  tramp  was  finished,  and  not  a  little  to  the 
joy  of  the  trampers.  In  ten  and  a  half  consecutive  days 
they  had  marched  no  less  than  one  hundred  and  eighty- 
five  miles.  Considering  the  season  of  the  year  and  the 
condition  of  the  roads,  this  was  a  record  to  boast  of  in 
days  to  come.  For  the  Ninth  regiment,  however,  it 
was  only  half  the  story,  for  during  the  month  of  March, 
just  closed,  it  had  marched  over  three  hundred  miles, 
and  since  the  25th  of  January,  more  than  four  hundred. 

The  regiment  had  reached  Nicholasville,  in  its  return 
march  from  the  Cumberland  Gap,  on  March  31,  and  on 
April  2  it  was  being  rapidly  whirled  northward  over  the 
familiar  route  of  the  Kentucky  Central  road.  Colum 
bus  was  reached  late  in  the  evening  of  the  following 
day,  and  the  men  grumbled  considerably  at  the  quality 
of  the  bread  and  coffee  served  to  them  here.  About 
noon  of  the  4th  cars  were  changed  at  Belair,  and  the 
Ohio  was  crossed  on  a  ferry-boat.  Some  hot  coffee  and 
a  fresh  supply  of  rations  made  life  seem  a  little  more 
endurable  when  the  cars  were  once  more  boarded  for  the 
long  ride  through  Virginia.  The  journey  was  made  in 
freight  cars,  where  close  packing  would  obviate  the  ne 
cessity  for  a  fire,  and  the  men  were  more  than  glad  to  dis 
embark  when  Annapolis  was  finally  reached  on  the  7th. 


340  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [April, 

The  regiment  was  at  once  ordered  to  Camp  Parole, 
about  two  miles  from  the  city,  and  quickly  forgetting  the 
discomforts  of  the  journey,  proceeded  to  enjoy  their  new 
situation  in  true  soldier  fashion.  Sutlers  and  peddlers 
soon  swarmed  about  them,  and  the  men  were  children 
again  in  their  keen  enjoyment  of  the  fruits  and  vegeta 
bles  to  which  they  had  so  long  been  strangers. 

During  the  stay  at  this  point  the  camp  was  twice 
visited  by  General  Burnside,  and  the  Ninth  had  a  chance 
to  pay  its  respects  to  the  gallant  commander.  On  the 
first  visit  the  boys  turned  out  and  gave  him  three  rousing 
cheers, — such  as  he  alone  could  call  forth.  The  gen 
eral  was  plainly  dressed,  but  looked  as  dignified  and 
noble  as  ever.  As  the  boys  swung  their  hats  and 
cheered,  he  in  a  good-natured  way  bared  his  huge,  bald 
cranium  and  smilingly  bowed  his  acknowledgments,  as 
if  the  hearty  good-will  thus  expressed  was  by  no  means 
distasteful  to  him. 

The  second  time  he  was  accompanied  by  Generals 
Grant  and  Meade,  and  the  party  rode  through  the  camp, 
all  the  regiments  having  been  ordered  out  for  inspection. 
As  the  cavalcade  approached  the  line  of  the  Ninth,  the 
customary  salutes  were  given,  and  then  the  colonel 
called  for  "  Three  cheers  for  General  Grant!"  which 
were  given  in  good  style.  Then  he  called  for  "Three 
cheers  for  our  old  General  Burnside  !  "  and  this  time 
such  a  volume  of  sound  came  from  the  throats  of  the 
men  that  the  dignified  generals  smiled  in  spite  of  them 
selves. 

Early  in  the  month  General  Burnside  had  received 
orders  to  have  his  command  in  readiness  to  move  at  any 
time  after  April  20,  and  at  that  date  the  work  of  organ 
ization  and  equipment  was  completed.  The  Ninth  corps 


GEN.  S.  G.  GRIFFIN. 


1864]  FROM  ANNAPOLIS  TO  BRISTOW  STATION.  341 

now  comprised  four  divisions,  with  General  Parke  as 
chief  of  staff.  The  first  division  was  commanded  by 
General  Stevenson,  the  Second  by  General  Potter,  the 
Third  by  General  Willcox,  and  the  Fourth,  which  was 
made  up  entirely  of  colored  troops,  by  General  Ferrero, 
the  entire  command  numbering  25,000  men.  The  Ninth 
New  Hampshire  reported  to  Gen.  S.  G.  Griffin,  com 
manding  the  Second  brigade  of  the  Second  division. 

All  these  preparations  foreboded  an  important  move 
ment,  but  speculation  was  rife  as  to  the  destination  of 
the  corps.  From  its  present  position  two  movements 
were  possible, — one,  as  a  re-enforcement  to  the  Army  of 
the  Potomac ;  the  other,  an  independent  campaign 
against  Richmond  from  the  seacoast  south  of  Norfolk. 
Orders  to  be  ready  to  move  at  daylight  on  the  following 
morning  were  issued  on  the  evening  of  the  22d,  and  at 
the  appointed  hour  the  corps  took  up  its  line  of  march, 
the  route  following  the  line  of  the  Elk  Ridge  and 
Annapolis  railroad,  towards  Washington.  Only  twelve 
miles  was  covered  before  sundown,  for  the  roads  were 
dusty  and  hard  for  the  feet,  and  the  bivouac  for  the  night 
in  the  grassy  fields  was  a  welcome  relief.  The  next  day 
the  Ninth  regiment  had  the  lead,  which  made  it  easier 
marching,  but  the  eighteen  miles  that  were  travelled 
between  seven  in  the  forenoon  and  five  in  the  afternoon 
were  like  the  Irishman's  when  he  lost  his  way — "Just  a 
trifle  long  ! "  The  corps  encamped  for  the  night  near 
Bladensburg,  about  eight  miles  from  Washington. 

The  start  was  made  about  eight  o'clock  the  following 
morning,  but  as  a  heavy  shower  had  just  fallen,  the 
progress  during  the  forenoon  wras  somewhat  slow,  though 
the  ice-cold  waters  of  the  creek  that  was  forded  late  in 
the  forenoon  did  wash  off  a  portion  of  the  accumulated 


342  NINTH  NE  W  HAMPSHIRE.  [April, 

mud.  The  outskirts  of  Washington  were  reached  about 
noon,  and  the  word  was  passed  along  the  line  that  the 
corps  was  to  pass  through  the  city,  and  that  President 
Lincoln  and  General  Burnside  were  to  review  them  from 
a  balcony  of  Willard's  hotel. 

The  regiment  had  made  the  march  from  Annapolis 
under  the  command  of  Major  Chandler,  who  had  but 
recently  returned  from  Concord,  N.  H.,  where  he  had 
been  on  detail  duty  since  early  in  January,  as  Colonel 
Titus  was  ill  in  the  hospital  at  Washington  and  Colonel 
Babbitt  was  enjoying  a  twenty  days  leave  of  absence. 
The  men  made  a  creditable  appearance  in  the  long  line 
of  troops  that  trod  the  streets  of  the  city  that  afternoon, 
yet  as  a  part  of  the  great  pageant  many  of  the  details  of 
the  imposing  scene  were  unknown  to  them.  From  the 
many  accounts  of  that  memorable  review  it  is  not  easy 
to  make  a  selection,  but  no  one  is  more  graphic  in  its 
descriptions  than  the  following  selection  from  an  address 
delivered  at  Beverly,  Mass.,  by  Hon.  R.  S.  Rantoul,  in 
1871  : 

"On  the  25th  of  April,  1864,  I  stood,  at  high  noon, 
on  a  thronged  sidewalk  of  the  city  of  Washington. 
Across  the  street,  and  raised  on  a  balcony  above  the 
surging  crowd,  a  lank,  sad  man  stood  gazing  wistfully 
down — his  head  uncovered — upon  the  passing  scene 
beneath.  An  unutterable  sadness  seemed  to  have  fixed 
itself  upon  his  face.  For  the  most  part  he  was  unnoticed 
by  the  long  procession,  which  hour  after  hour,  with  fre 
quent  pauses,  but  with  elastic  tread,  pushed  on,  through 
dust  and  sweat,  for  Long  bridge,  a  few  rods  off — then 
over  the  Potomac  and  into  Virginia.  In  dull  succession, 
company  on  company,  battalion  by  battalion,  brigade 


1864.]  FROM  ANNAPOLIS  TO  BRISTOW  STATION.  343 

after  brigade,  wearily  yet  cheerfully,  they  tramped  on 
under  that  southern  sun,  sometimes  singing,  oftener 
thoughtful,  never  seemingly  regretful. 

"  It  was  one  of  those  soft,  vernal  days,  whose  very 
air,  as  if  breathed  from  groves  of  oranges  and  myrtle, 
seemed  able  to  melt  all  hearts.  Music  there  was  :  but 
strangely,  as  it  seemed,  not  of  that  martial  strain,  asso 
ciated,  in  piping  times  of  peace,  with  the  rush  of  battle. 
Exquisite  music  there  was  from  martial  bands,  but  for 
the  hour  they  seemed  to  have  attuned  themselves  to 
melodies  of  home  and  love. 

"  Shoulder  to  shoulder,  looking  not  back,  asking  not 
whither,  marched  the  bronzed  veteran  of  East  Tennessee 
and  Carolina  with  regiments  of  raw  recruits, — tradesmen 
and  mechanics  from  the  towns,  the  farmer  and  frontiers 
man  from  the  West,  the  lumberman  from  his  Eastern 
forest,  Indian  sharpshooters  attached  to  Western  infan 
try,  favored  sons  of  culture  and  wealth,  the  first  black 
division,  five  or  six  thousand  strong,  following  the  white 
state  flag  of  Massachusetts,  batteries  of  artillery,  squad 
rons  of  cavalry ;  mingling  with  these,  or  pressing  hard 
upon  them,  commissary  wagons,  ambulances,  and  quar 
termasters'  trains,  stuffed  with  the  equipage  of  hospital 
and  camp  ;  and,  last  of  all,  as  far  as  the  eye  could  reach, 
fat  beeves  choked  up  the  dusty  way. 

"Solemnly  the  mighty  mass  moved  forward  to  con 
front  its  fate.  Many  a  brave  man  felt  that  day  that  he 
was  crossing  Long  bridge  never  to  return.  Little  heed 
paid  they  that  the  eye  of  Lincoln  was  upon  them  ;  little 
ardor  they  caught  from  sad,  sweet  music  or  the  cheers  and 
greetings  of  the  thronging  streets  !  Little  was  there  for 
them  of  pomp  or  circumstance  of  glorious  war  !  Grim  re 
solve  and  cheerful  devotion  were  the  lessons  of  the  hour  ! 


344  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [April, 

"Ask  where  you  would,  you  got  no  clue  to  their  des 
tination,  for  no  one  knew  it !  They  had  waited  long  at 
Annapolis,  expecting  to  be  ordered  off  by  sea.  Not  a 
man,  that  day,  of  all  those  marching  legions,  knew 
whither  he  was  going  ! 

' '  '  Theirs  not  to  reason  why  ! 
Theirs  but  to  do  and  die  ! ' 

"Only  the  lank,  sad  man  who  gazed  from  his  high 
place  upon  them,  hat  in  hand,  as  though  with  a  friend's 
last  look,  and  the  few  high  officials  about  him,  knew  more 
than  that  the  Ninth  Army  corps,  twenty-five  thousand 
strong,  had  been  ordered  from  Annapolis  to  Alexandria  ! 
The  veil  of  the  future  was  not  yet  lifted  !  " 

The  Long  bridge  was  crossed,  and  about  two  miles 
farther  on  the  troops  went  into  camp.  "  Where  are  we 
going?"  was  the  question  that  was  heard  on  all  sides 
that  night,  and  while  many  still  clung  to  the  hope  that 
transports  would  be  waiting  for  them  at  Alexandria,  the 
opinion  that  the  corps  was  to  join  in  the  grand  movement 
of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  constantly  gained  ground. 
The  last  glimmer  died  away  when  it  became  known  the 
next  day  that  the  corps  had  been  assigned  to  the  duty 
of  guarding  the  Orange  &  Alexandria  railroad  from  the 
Potomac  to  the  Rapidan,  relieving  the  Fifth,  which  had 
been  ordered  to  the  front. 

On  the  27th  the  march  was  resumed,  the  brigade  start 
ing  in  the  middle  of  the  forenoon  and  marching  until 
dusk,  when  it  went  into  camp  about  three  miles  beyond 
Fairfax  Court-house.  The  weather  had  been  warm,  and 
the  roads  dusty,  but  the  men  were  fifteen  miles  from 
their  starting-point  when  the  halt  was  made.  The  next 


1864.]  FROM  ANNAPOLIS  TO  BRISTOW  STATION.  345 

day  the  Ninth  New  Hampshire  was  detailed  to  act  as 
guard  for  the  baggage  train,  and  hard,  hot  work  they 
found  it,  for  they  had  to  take  the  side  of  the  road  and 
leave  the  smooth  track  for  the  mules.  The  route  lay 
through  Centreville,  which  was  found  to  be  practically 
deserted,  past  the  old  earthworks  at  Manassas,  and  din 
ner  was  eaten  on  the  historic  battle-field  of  Bull  Run. 
The  Run  was  forded,  and  at  sunset  the  brigade  reached 
Bristow  Station  and  went  into  camp  on  Broad  Run. 
The  country  had  been  reduced  almost  to  a  desert :  even 
"  tent  timber"  and  firewood  were  at  a  premium. 

The  2pth  was  cold  and  windy.  The  troops  were  early 
astir,  expectant  of  a  farther  advance,  but  in  the  station 
ing  of  the  different  regiments  of  the  division  along  the 
line  of  the  railroad,  the  only  change  which  fell  to  the  lot 
of  the  Ninth  was  a  move  across  the  railroad  into  what  the 
boys  designated  as  a  horse  and  mule  cemetery,  for  a  car 
cass  confronted  them  at  every  turn.  A  mail  had  arrived 
that  morning,  and  the  boys  were  not  sorry  for  a  brief 
respite,  though  they  were  kept  in  constant  readiness  for 
a  move  at  short  notice.  From  their  camp  they  watched 
the  constant  passing  of  heavy  trains  loaded  with  soldiers 
and  supplies,  for  the  army  beyond  the  Potomac  was 
being  largely  re-enforced,  and  the  head-quarters  of 
General  Grant  were  only  thirty  miles  away?  at  Cul- 
peper  Court-house. 


JOTTINGS    BY    THE   WAY. 

While  the  regiment  was  stationed  in  Kentucky,  Cap 
tains  Alexander  and  Cooper  attended  an  auction  sale  of 
slaves  that  was  held  in  the  open  market.  Among  the 
lot  was  a  pretty  girl  named  Eliza,  and  her  grandmother, 


346  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [January, 

old  Aunt  Betsy.  There  was  so  little  negro  blood  in  the 
girl  that  anywhere  else  she  would  have  passed  as  a 
white  woman,  and  the  bidding  on  her  was  very  smart. 
Two  young  fellows  had  run  the  figures  up  to  above 
eight  hundred  dollars,  and  our  captains  were  discussing 
between  themselves  if  they  could  possibly  raise  money 
enough  to  save  her  from  such  a  life  as  she  was  doomed 
to  lead,  when  a  benevolent  looking  old  gentleman,  who 
had  overheard  their  conversation,  stepped  forward  and 
said, — "You  are  right,  young  gentlemen  ;  it  is  a  shame, 
and  rather  than  see  the  poor  thing  sacrificed  I  '11  buy  her 
myself!"  And  he  was  as  good  as  his  word,  for  he  not 
only  bid  off  the  girl,  but  when  the  old  grandmother  was 
put  up  on  the  block  and  the  auctioneer  was  trying  to  get 
some  one  to  make  an  offer  for  her,  he  said,  '*  Here,  I  '11 
take  her  too  !"  though  he  knew  the  poor  old  creature 
could  never  be  anything  but  a  burden  on  his  hands. 


Quartermaster  Moses  had  some  relatives  by  the  name 
of  Baker  at  Lancaster,  who  were  very  hospitable  to  him 
during  the  stay  in  Kentucky.  When  the  regiment  was 
ordered  to  East  Tennessee  one  of  the  slave-owners  in 
the  vicinity  where  Moses's  cousin  lived,  missed  one  of 
his  black  boys  and  suspected  that  he  was  trying  to  get 
off  with  the  regiment.  So  he  got  Baker  to  go  with  him 
and  a  sheriff  to  the  camp,  hoping  to  interest  Moses  in 
the  search. 

When  they  got  to  the  camp  and  had  made  known  their 
errand,  the  quartermaster  was  puzzled  as  to  which  horn 
of  the  dilemna  to  choose,  for  he  did  n't  want  to  help  cap 
ture  the  boy  and  at  the  same  time  he  had  received  many 
kindnesses  at  Baker's  hands ;  so  he  went  walking  along 


1864.]  FROM  KENTUCKY  TO  ANNAPOLIS.  347 

with  them,  hoping  that  something  would  turn  up — a  la 
Micawber — to  help  him  out  of  his  difficult  position. 
They  went  near  where  the  boy  was,  but  he  had  got 
wind  that  the  sheriff  was  after  him,  and  when  he  saw 
them  coming  started  on  a  run  out  of  the  camp. 

The  sheriff  caught  sight  of  him,  and  drawing  his  pis 
tol  he  shouted,  "  Come  on,  Quartermaster  !"  The  quar 
termaster's  blood  boiled  at  the  thought.  "No,  by 
G — d,  I  won't  come  !"  he  said  ;  "  I  won't  chase  human 
ity  for  any  blood  tie  on  earth  !"  The  sheriff  chased  the 
boy  and  caught  him,  but  after  a  little  skirmish  the  boy 
got  away  and  made  for  the  woods,  where  Captain  Copp 
had  a  company  of  men  doing  picket  duty.  "  They're 
after  me !  My  master  is  after  me !"  he  cried,  and 
besought  Copp  to  save  him. 

Copp  told  him  to  hide  in  the  woods  and  keep  quiet. 
Then  he  turned  to  the  men  and  said,  "They're  after 
this  boy,  but  they  're  not  going  to  have  him.  You  know 
what  I  mean,  probably."  Evidently  they  understood, 
for  they  all  looked  at  their  guns  and  saw  that  they 
were  loaded  and  capped.  Soon  the  searching  party 
appeared,  looking  carefully  into  the  woods  and  bushes 
as  they  went  along  the  road.  For  some  reason  they 
paid  no  attention  to  the  pickets,  and  after  the  coast  was 
clear  the  boy  was  taken  back  to  camp. 

But  when  the  regiment  marched  through  Lancaster 
the  sheriff  was  on  the  lookout,  and  this  time  the  colonel 
was  appealed  to,  and  the  owner  of  the  boy,  Dr.  Pettis, 
demanded  that  his  "  property"  be  returned  to  him.  "  I 
have  nothing  to  do  with  him,"  said  the  colonel,  "  and 
know  nothing  about  him."  At  the  time  of  the  previous 
visit  of  the  sheriff  the  men  had  appealed  to  the  colonel 
as  to  what  should  be  done  with  the  boy,  and  he  had  told 


NINTH  NE  W  HAMPSHIRE.  [March, 

them  that  they  mustn't  ask  him,  but  if  they  couldn't 
manage  to  take  care  of  him  among  themselves,  why  his 
owner  must  have  him. 

The  regiment  was  marching  company  front,  and  the 
darkey  was  in  between  Companies  C  and  E.  The  sheriff 
started  to  go  through  the  lines,  but  the  little  fellow  was 
too  quick  for  him,  and  slipped  back  through  the  ranks 
to  Company  K.  He  got  behind  Captain  Cooper,  and 
when  the  sheriff*  tried  to  follow  him,  Allen,  who  was  the 
orderly  sergeant  on  the  right,  punched  him  with  his 
musket  so  that  he  drew  blood.  He  tried  again  to  break 
into  the  line,  and  this  time  Captain  Cooper  took  him  by 
the  collar  and  said,  "  You  get  out  of  here  !"  and  hoisted 
him  off*  his  feet  and  laid  him  alongside  the  curbstone. 
Quite  a  number  in  the  crowd  that  had  gathered  drew 
their  revolvers,  and  it  looked  for  a  moment  like  trouble ; 
but  the  regiment  went  on  its  way,  and  the  boy  was  put  on 
board  the  train  at  Knoxville  by  Lieutenant  Case,  who 
was  a  thorough-going  Abolitionist  and  was  bound  to 
save  him  from  slavery. 

Lieutenant  Wilcox. — I  presume  you  remember  when 
we  left  Camp  Burnside  it  was  my  fortune  to  be  lieutenant 
of  the  guard,  and  that  there  were  strict  orders  against 
foraging  through  that  part  of  Kentucky.  Along  towards 
night  the  colonel's  cook  was  seen  down  in  the  field,  com 
ing  towards  us.  We  had  just  passed  a  farm-house,  where 
there  was  a  flock  of  geese  right  around  the  yard  and  the 
barn.  We  kept  marching  along,  and  pretty  soon  we 
saw  the  cook  coming  back,  close  by  the  wall,  with  a 
big,  fat  goose  under  his  arm.  One  of  the  men  stepped 
over  the  wall  and  collared  him,  and  we  marched  him 
along  with  the  rest,  and  made  him  carry  the  goose. 


1864.]  FROM  KENTUCKY  TO  ANNAPOLIS.  349 

The  colonel  wanted  to  go  as  far  as  possible — this  was 
when  we  were  going  to  Knoxville,  and  it  was  the  first 
day  out — and  it  was  nearly  dark  when  we  turned  into  a 
piece  of  woods  beside  the  road.  We  pitched  our  tents 
and  got  ready  for  supper,  and  the  man  and  the  goose 
stayed  with  us,  "under  guard."  By  and  by  the  colonel's 
orderly  came  along,  and  he  asked  me  if  I  had  seen  any 
thing  of  the  colonel's  cook.  "Yes, "said  I,  "I've  got 
the  colonel's  cook  right  here,  and  a  goose  besides,  and 
you  can  go  back  and  tell  the  colonel  so  with  my  com 
pliments  ! "  It  was  n't  long  before  we  heard  from  the 
colonel — he  wanted  some  supper,  and  if  we  'd  send  him 
the  cook  we  might  keep  the  goose.  We  had  n't  many 
fixings,  but  the  colonel's  cook  was  a  man  of  discrimina 
tion,  and  that  bird  was  mighty  fine  eating. 


Qiiartermaster  Moses. — On  the  march  to  Point  Burn- 
side,  Sergeant  Wadleigh,  of  Company  A,  who  had  been 
ailing  for  some  time,  though  still  on  duty,  tried  to  get 
permission  from  the  surgeons  to  be  placed  in  the  ambu 
lance,  saying  that  he  was  exhausted  and  felt  he  could 
go  no  farther.  This  was  refused,  and  he  stumbled  along 
a  little  way,  and  finally  gave  out  entirely.  When  I 
came  along  with  the  train  I  picked  him  up  and  put  him 
on  some  oat  sacks  and  brought  him  to  camp.  The  next 
morning  I  turned  him  over  to  the  surgeons,  and  told 
them  to  see  that  he  was  taken  care  of;  but  it  was  too 
late  to  do  the  poor  fellow  any  good,  and  he  died  that 
night. 

Lieutenant  Wilcox. — That  time  we  built  a  bridge  over 
Rockcastle  river,  in  order  to  get  the  teams  across,  was  a 


350  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [March, 

pretty  tough  job.  The  bridge  had  been  carried  away, 
but  the  timbers  were  lodged  in  a  heap  of  driftwood  in 
a  little  bend,  and  we  had  to  get  them  out  the  best  way 
we  could.  Just  before  we  started  on  the  job  General 
Garrard  rode  down  to  the  bank  of  the  river  and  asked 
Colonel  Titus  if  he  had  any  engineers.  "  No,"  replied 
the  colonel,  "  I  haven't  got  any  engineers,  but  I  Ve  got 
some  live  Yankees,  and  I  guess  they  '11  do  about  as 
well."  So  we  went  to  work,  and  while  the  water  was 
— as  the  boys  say  when  they  go  in  swimming  a  trifle 
early  in  the  season — "  n-ni-nice  and  w-warm  !"  still  we 
kept  pegging  away,  and  in  less  than  twenty-four  hours 
that  bridge  was  ready  for  use,  and  the  teams  got  across 
all  right.  General  Garrard  told  the  colonel  afterwards 
that  he  had  heard  of  Yankee  tricks  before,  but  he 

believed  that  bridge-building  was  the  d dest  Yankee 

trick  that  ever  was  played. 


Quartermaster  Moses. — Just  after  we  joined  the  corps, 
and  I  was  appointed  acting  brigade  quartermaster,  Quar 
termaster  Cilley  and  I  had  been  scurrying  around  get 
ting  the  teams  loaded  up  ready  for  the  trip  back  over 
the  mountains,  and  we  got  rather  thirsty.  So  we  hunted 
up  some  "apple-jack,"  and  I  invited  the  quartermaster 
to  have  a  drink  with  me.  We  each  had  one,  and  then 
I  asked  the  man  how  much  it  was.  "  Fifty  cents 
apiece,  gentlemen,"  said  he,  "or  three  drinks  for  a 
dollar."  Now  I  did  n't  really  care  for  that  other  drink, 
but  I  wasn't  going  to  let  such  a  chance  go  a-begging, 
seeing  that  I  'd  got  to  pay  a  dollar  anyway.  "All 
right,"  says  I,  "we'll  have  three  drinks."  The  man 
thought  I  meant  three  drinks  apiece,  but  I  emptied  one 


1864.]  FROM  KENTUCKY  TO  ANNAPOLIS.  351 

glass,  laid  down  my  dollar,  and  got  out  without  waiting 
for  the  change,  for  we  were  in  Kentucky,  where  they 
didn't  always  stop  to  give  you  warning  of  their  intention 
to  shoot. 


Lieutenant  Wilcox. — When  we  were  at  Camp  Burn- 
side,  the  sutlers  started  in  with  charging  the  men  exor 
bitant  prices,  and  it  was  n't  long  before  there  was  a 
revolt.  I  had  n't  paid  much  attention  to  what  the  boys 
said,  and  the  first  thing  I  knew  there  was  a  perfect  mob 
over  on  the  east  side  of  the  camp  where  the  sutlers'  tents 
were.  The  boys  cleaned  out  a  whole  row  of  them,  and 
when  some  officers  came  riding  up,  and  tried  to  stop 
them,  they  turned  on  the  officers,  and  pelted  them  with 
eggs  till  they  were  covered  from  head  to  foot,  and  had  to 
beat  a  retreat. 

Colonel  Babbitt. — I  was  in  command  of  the  regiment 
on  the  journey  to  Annapolis,  and  when  we  got  as  far  as 
Cumberland,  Md.,  the  engineer  swore  he  would  n't  run 
the  train  any  farther.  I  put  a  guard  on  the  engine,  and 
told  the  engineer  that  he  could  run  that  train,  or  I'd  take 
possession  and  run  it  myself.  He  sputtered  for  a  while, 
but  I  told  him  I  'd  give  him  thirty  minutes  to  make  up 
his  mind ;  and,  having  stationed  a  guard  so  that  he  could 
not  get  away  from  us,  I  went  back  to  my  car.  When  I 
went  back  in  half  an  hour,  he  said  he  had  concluded  to 
run  the  engine  himself.  He  got  up  steam,  and  we  went 
ahead,  but  I  kept  a  guard  over  him  till  we  got  to  An 
napolis,  all  the  same. 

When  Dr.  Webster  went  back  to  New  Hampshire 
early  in  January,  the  officers  of  the  regiment  very  much 


35 2  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [March, 

surprised  Colonel  Titus  by  making  him  a  present  of  the 
bay  horse  which  the  doctor  had  owned,  and  which  he 
had  disposed  of  to  them  at  a  bargain — no  one  ever  could 
be  persuaded  to  expose  the  conditions  of  the  trade,  how 
ever.  The  colonel  thought  it  very  kind  of  them,  indeed, 
and  expressed  his  acknowledgments  in  the  approved 
fashion ;  but  when  he  came  to  examine  his  new  posses 
sion  more  closely,  he  recalled  to  mind,  with  peculiar 
appropriateness,  the  old  ada-ge,  "  Never  look  a  gift  horse 
in  the  mouth,"  for  the  beast  was  not  only  old,  but  lame, 
and  had  been  for  some  time,  as  the  colonel  learned  later 
on. 

When  the  order  for  the  Ninth  to  proceed  from  Camp 
Burnside  to  Knoxville  via  the  Cumberland  mountains 
arrived,  everybody  who  knew  anything  about  the  route 
declared  it  to  be  an  utter  impossibility  to  get  the  teams 
through,  yet  General  Frye  was  blamed  not  a  little  at 
head-quarters  for  not  immediately  enforcing  the  order. 
Finally  he  received  a  summons  to  report  in  person  at 
Knoxville  to  explain  the  cause  of  the  delay,  and  to  leave 
the  senior  colonel  of  the  brigade  to  take  it  through  at 
once.  Colonel  Titus  was  the  senior  colonel  thus  com 
missioned,  and  his  reply  to  the  command  was  that  he  'd 
see  the  brigade  in  a  hotter  place  by  several  degrees  than 
Camp  Burnside  was,  and  himself  in  private  life,  before 
he  'd  sacrifice  his  men  in  any  such  foolhardy  undertak 
ing.  With  what  recruits  had  been  received  the  regi 
ment  now  numbered  in  the  aggregate  nine  hundred  and 
thirty  enlisted  men,  and  the  colonel  had  labored  hard  to 
bring  them  to  their  present  efficiency,  so  it  is  not  strange 
that  he  should  object  to  such  summary  proceedings. 
When  Quartermaster  Moses  finally  turned  over  his 


QUARTERMASTER  WILLIAM  PITT  MOSES. 


1864.]  FROM  KENTUCKY  TO  ANNAPOLIS.  353 

teams  at  Knoxville,  late  in  March,  it  was  conceded  by 
every  one  that  he  had  accomplished  what  had  been 
regarded  as  an  impossibility  ;  but  an  officer  who  rode 
over  the  route  a  little  later  in  the  season,  declared  that 
from  Cumberland  Gap  to  Knoxville  he  never  was  out  of 
sight  of  a  dead  mule. 

It  will  be  remembered  that  the  band  which  went  out 
with  the  regiment  from  Concord  had  been  made  a  bri 
gade  band,  and  that  Major  Everett  had  organized  an 
other.  The  new  band,  by  dint  of  diligent  practising, 
had  arrived  at  quite  a  degree  of  proficiency,  and  Band 
master  Graves  was  very  proud  of  his  pupils.  Writing 
home  to  Major  Chandler,  who  was  on  detail  duty  at 
Concord,  he  says, — "We  now  have  sixteen  men,  and 
have  three  different  parts  represented  very  well,  so  I 
hardly  think  we  need  any  more  at  present.  Jimmie 
says,  *  Tell  the  major  I  should  like  to  come  to  Concord, 
and  beat  the  calls  for  him.'"  The  rough  roads  that  the 
regiment  travelled  over  that  winter,  however,  made  the 
duties  of  the  band  rather  light. 


One  special  detail  in  which  the  men  made  an  unusu 
ally  strong  impression  on  the  Kentuckians,  was  when 
Colonel  Titus  sent  a  detachment  of  sixty-nine  men, 
under  Captain  Whitfield,  to  act  as  a  funeral  escort  for 
the  body  of  Major  Evans,  of  the  Nineteenth  Kentucky, 
at  the  request  of  General  Boyle.  The  regiment  had< 
just  received  its  new  equipments  and  rifles,  and  with  its 
new  colors,  which  had  been  sent  to  Cincinnati  for  in 
scription  with  the  memorable  words  "Jackson"  and 
"  Vicksburg,"  made  a  splendid  appearance. 

XXIII 


354  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [March, 

Lieutenant  Wilcox. — When  we  were  passing  through 
Washington  on  our  way  to  Annapolis,  the  orders  were 
very  strict  in  regard  to  any  one's  leaving  the  ranks. 
There  were  four  ex-rebels  in  my  company,  and  as  we 
halted  for  a  few  minutes  in  the  street,  one  of  them 
named  Douglass  came  up  to  me  and  said,  "  Lieutenant, 
I  have  a  sister  here  in  the  city  whom  I  have  n't  seen  for 
three  years.  I  want  to  stop  and  see  her,  and  I  give  you 
my  word  of  honor  as  a  man  that  I  will  return  and  be  in 
camp  for  roll-call  to-morrow  morning."  "  How  do  you 
know  where  we  are  going  to  be?"  I  said.  "  I  '11  find 
you,"  he  replied.  "  There  are  strict  orders  against  any 
man  leaving."  "  I  know  it,  but  I  want  to  see  my  sister 
before  I  leave." 

Well,  I  had  quite  an  interest  in  Douglass,  and  had 
talked  with  him  a  good  deal.  He  had  been  in  the  Con 
federate  service,  and  used  to  curse  our  fellows  because 
they  would  find  fault  with  the  grub.  "  D— n  you  !"  he 
used  to  say,  "you  ought  to  go  into  the  Southern  Confed 
eracy  for  a  while,  and  see  how  you  'd  like  the  food 
there  !  "  He  was  a  good  soldier,  and  very  faithful,  so  I 
said  to  him,  "  Well,  Douglass,  I  don't  want  to  see  any 
man  leave  the  ranks,"  and  'he  took  good  care  that  I 
should  n't  see  him  ;  but  he  was  back  in  his  place  the 
next  morning,  just  as  he  had  promised. 


'F.  J.  Burnham. — While  we  were  stationed  near 
Paris,  several  of  the  boys  got  permission  one  night  to 
go  into  town,  and  two  of  them — Cram  and  O'Brien- 
came  home  gloriously  drunk.  The  former  was  an  old 
soldier,  having  served  in  the  British  army  in  India  and 
under  Havelock,  and  he  took  the  punishment  ordered  by 


1864.]  FROM  KENTUCKY  TO  ANNAPOLIS.  355 

the  captain — carrying  a  log — like  a  philosopher,  but 
O'Brien  dodged  his  by  taking  leg  bail  during  the  night. 
Soon  after  the  new  rifles  were  drawn  the  colonel  inau 
gurated  a  five  hours  drill  daily,  and  having  heard  that 
there  was  considerable  growling  over  the  order,  gave  the 
grumblers  a  practical  lesson  on  the  subject.  One  morn 
ing  when  the  boys  were  relieved,  instead  of  having  them 
draw  the  charges  in  their  rifles,  as  usual,  he  put  up  a 
turkey,  which  he  had  managed  to  procure  somewhere, 
at  a  distance  of  about  three  hundred  yards,  and  told  the 
boys  to  try  their  skill  at  that  for  a  target,  promising  the 
bird  as  a  prize  to  the  man  who  should  succeed  in  hitting 
it.  The  boys  did  their  prettiest,  but  no  one  secured  the 
prize.  With  our  old  Windsors  his  turkeyship  would  not 
have  escaped  so  easily,  but  it  made  the  boys  see  the  ne 
cessity  for  drill,  and  that  was  what  the  colonel  was  after. 

Sergeant  Lathe. — I  saw  one  sight  at  Camp  Burnside 
that  I  shall  not  soon  forget.  About  forty  families  from 
East  Tennessee  passed  through  there  one  day,  and  it 
was  a  sight  to  bring  tears  from  eyes  unused  to  weeping. 
They  were  all  women  and  children,  whose  husbands  and 
fathers  were  either  in  the  army  or  had  been  killed  by 
the  rebels.  They  had  been  five  weeks  coming  over  the 
mountains,  and  most  of  the  time  it  had  been  very  cold. 
Some  of  them  had  hardly  rags  enough  to  cover  their 
nakedness,  and  wore  men's  boots  to  keep  their  tender 
feet  from  the  frozen  ground.  One  woman  had  five  lit 
tle  children,  the  oldest  but  six  years  of  age.  One  can 
scarcely  conceive  of  the  sufferings  endured  by  the  loyal 
people  of  the  South  during  those  dreadful  years.  These 
people  had  lost  everything  they  possessed,  and  had  been 
driven  from  their  homes  by  the  rebels. 


CHAPTER   XL 
THE  WILDERNESS  AND  SPOTTSYLVANIA  COURT-HOUSE. 

For  three  long  years  the  conflict  between  the  North 
and  the  South  had  raged  with  unabated  fury,  yet  the 
Southern  Confederacy  still  existed,  and  its  leaders  were 
strong  in  their  belief  that  it  could  hold  out  until  the  na 
tions  of  Europe  should  recognize  it  as  an  independent 
and  sovereign  power.  After  his  defeat  at  Gettysburg, 
Lee  had  withdrawn  his  army  across  the  Rapidan,  and 
during  the  winter  had  recruited  its  ranks  ;  so  -that  he 
now  had  a  powerful  army, 

"  Ready  to  fight,  or  ready  to  die  !  " 

With  so  determined  a  leader  as  Lee  had  proved  himself 
to  be,  and  a  host  of  veterans  tried  arid  seasoned  by  the 
privations  and  hardships  of  war,  the  Southern  army 
appeared  to  be  almost  invincible  ;  and  now  the  North 
was  awake  to  this  fact,  and  also  that  the  war  was  being 
prolonged  to  a  point  beyond  the  safety  of  the  nation. 

There  was  no  question  that,  so  far  as  numerical 
strength  and  material  resources  were  concerned,  the 
North  had  the  advantage  ;  but  with  the  armies  in  the 
East  and  West  acting  independently  of  each  other,  and 
never  pulling  together,  the  Southern  commander  had 
only  to  employ  his  interior  lines  of  communication,  and 
by  transporting  his  troops  from  East  to  West  re-enforce 
the  army  more  vigorously  pressed,  to  hold  the  balance 
of  power  even  with  inferior  forces.  It  was  evident  that 


1864.]         THE   WILDERNESS  AND  SPOTTSYLVANIA.  357 

the  various  and  complicated  operations  of  the  Northern 
armies  would  be  greatly  promoted  by  placing  them 
under  the  direction  of  a  single  competent  leader.  Such 
was  the  popular  judgment,  and  it  was  in  accordance 
with  this  demand  that  President  Lincoln,  on  March  i, 
1864,  had  nominated  Gen.  Ulysses  S.  Grant  as  lieutenant- 
general  of  the  armies  of  the  United  States. 

The  rank  of  lieutenant-general — an  office  carrying 
with  it  an  authority  subordinate  only  to  that  of  the  presi 
dent,  and  an  honor  hitherto  accorded  to  George  Washing 
ton  alone — had  been  revived  by  congress,  and  the  nomi 
nation  of  the  president  was  promptly  confirmed  by  the 
senate.  That  the  qualifications  of  General  Grant  for 
this  responsible  position  should  be  universally  conceded, 
was  not  to  be  expected,  but  while  there  may  have  been 
other  commanders  who  were  his  superior  in  strategy, 
there  was  one  point  in  which  he  stood  pre-eminent,  and 
that  was  his  utter  disbelief  in  the  efficacy  of  sentimental 
procedures  in  dealing  with  the  Rebellion.  There  would 
be  no  return  to  loyalty  so  long  as  the  military  power  of 
the  South  remained  unbroken,  and  in  his  opinion  that 
power  would  never  be  broken  save  by  the  force  of  strong 
armies  in  bloody  battles. 

It  was  with  such  views  as  these  that  General  Grant, 
summoned  from .  the  West  by  telegraph,  repaired  to 
Washington  to  receive  his  commission  and  instructions. 
He  was  formally  introduced  to  the  president  and  cabinet 
on  the  pth  of  March,  and  the  following  day,  after  a 
flying  visit  paid  to  the  Army  of  the  Potomac,  started 
on  his  return  to  the  West,  to  arrange  the  preparatory 
movements  inaugurating  the  general  campaign.  His 
assumption  of  command  was  made  in  a  brief  and 
modest  order,  announcing  that  his  head-quarters  would 


358  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [May, 

be  in  the  field,  and,  until  further  orders,  with  the  Army 
of  the  Potomac.  The  remainder  of  March,  and  nearly 
the  whole  of  April,  were  devoted  to  careful  preparation 
for  the  campaign. 

While  General  Grant  was  in  St.  Louis  he  had  assigned 
to  Gen.  W.  T.  Sherman  the  command  of  the  division 
of  the  Mississippi,  including  the  departments  of  the  Ohio, 
the  Cumberland,  the  Tennessee,  and  the  Arkansas  ;  had 
promoted  Gen.  J.  B.  McPherson  to  the  position  that 
Sherman  had  held,  and  advanced  Logan  to  the  com 
mand  of  McPherson's  corps.  The  Army  of  the  Poto 
mac,  under  General  Meade,  was  completely  re-organ 
ized,  the  five  corps  being  reduced  to  three,  commanded 
respectively  by  Generals  Hancock,  Warren,  and  Sedg- 
wick.  General  Burnside,  who  had  been  re-organizing 
and  receiving  large  accessions  to  the  Ninth  corps  in 
Maryland,  crossed  the  Potomac  on  the  23d  of  April,  and 
joined  Meade's  army,  thus  increasing  the  fighting  strength 
of  the  force  to  considerably  more  than  100,000  men. 

To  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  had  been  assigned  the 
most  important  work  of  the  campaign,  and  that  was  to 
turn  Lee's  right  flank,  which  would  prevent  a  counter- 
movement  on  Washington  ;  and  having  forced  him  back 
on  Richmond,  to  destroy  his  army  as  soon  as  possible. 
At  length  everything  was  in  readiness,  and  the  army, 
masking  its  intentions  by  a  feint  on  Lee's  left,  was  put 
in  motion  to  cross  the  Rapidan  on  his  right,  at  midnight, 
on  the  3d  of  May.  Warren,  crossing  at  the  Germania 
ford,  led  the  way,  followed  by  Sedgwick,  and  pushed 
straight  on  into  the  Wilderness  ;  while  Hancock,  cross 
ing  at  Ely's  ford,  moved  on  to  Chancellorsville,  accom 
panied  by  the  trains  of  the  whole  army.  As  soon  as 
this  much  had  been  accomplished,  General  Grant,  on 


1864.]         THE   WILDERNESS  AND  SPOTTSYLVANIA.  359 

the  4th,  sent  orders  to  Burnside  to  unite  with  the  army 
south  of  the  Rapidan.  By  making  a  forced  march,  he 
arrived  there  the  next  day,  though  some  of  his  troops 
marched  forty  miles  to  accomplish  it.  By  this  time  Gen 
eral  Grant  had  left  his  head-quarters  at  Culpeper  Court 
house,  and  advanced  to  the  front. 

A  glance  at  this  famous  battle-ground  known  as  the 
Wilderness,  shows  a  large  tract  of  broken  table-land, 
stretching  southward  from  the  Rapidan  nearly  to  Spott- 
sylvania  Court-house.  Seamed  with  ravines,  covered 
with  a  dense  growth  of  scrubby  timber  and  bushes,  with 
only  an  occasional  clearing,  crossed  by  three  or  four 
good  roads  and  a  multitude  of  narrow  cart-tracks,  the 
whole  region  formed  a  tangled  labyrinth  in  which  num 
bers,  artillery,  and  cavalry,  were  of  small  account 
against  local  knowledge,  advantage  of  position,  and 
command  of  roads. 

Obviously  it  was  for  Grant's  interest  to  get  through 
this  maze  as  quickly  and  with  as  little  fighting  as  pos 
sible  :  and  this  he  confidently  expected  to  do,  but  Lee, 
alert  and  vigilant  as  ever,  no  sooner  discovered  the 
movement  than  he  prepared  to  meet  the  advance.  His 
army,  which  had  been  looking  north  towards  the  Rapi 
dan,  was  brought  around  to  the  right  and  moved  down, 
and  the  line  of  battle  was  formed  about  six  miles  to  the 
east  of  the  defences  on  Mine  run.  Ewell's  corps  held 
the  left  of  the  line,  next  the  river ;  A.  P.  Hill's  corps 
occupied  the  right,  and  Longstreet,  who  had  but  recently 
returned  from  his  campaign  in  East  Tennessee,  and  was 
now  resting  at  Charlottesville,  was  ordered  up  in  season 
to  participate  in  the  second  day's  action. 

The  first  day  of  the  advance  only  a  few  Confederate 
pickets  were  seen  and  scarcely  a  shot  was  fired.  That 


360  NINTH  NE  W  HAMPSHIRE.  [May, 

night  Warren  rested  at  the  Old  Wilderness  tavern,  which 
was  about  five  miles  from  the  ford,  with  Sedgwick's 
corps  two  miles  in  the  rear.  Hancock's  corps  was  also 
in  the  rear,  near  Chancellorsville,  and  the  cavalry,  under 
Sheridan,  guarded  the  front  and  flanks  of  the  infantry. 
An  early  start  was  planned  for  the  next  morning  :  War 
ren  and  Sedgwick  were  to  bear  to  the  south-west,  follow 
ing  the  road  to  Orange  Court-house ;  Hancock,  pressing 
more  to  the  south,  was  to  make  for  Shady  Grove  church, 
and  the  cavalry,  sweeping  still  farther  to  the  south-west, 
was  to  make  a  reconnoissance  in  force. 

Scarcely  were  the  troops  well  under  way  on  their  sev 
eral  routes,  on  the  morning  of  May  5,  when  the  Confed 
erate  forces  made  an  unlooked-for  advance.  The 
ground  was  as  unfavorable  for  the  successful  resistance 
of  an  attack  as  it  well  could  be  ;  there  was  no  time,  even, 
to  form  in  line  of  battle  ;  yet  there  was  no  choice  for  the 
Union  commander  but  to  fight.  Hill,  by  an  early  start, 
had  secured  a  strong  and  sheltered  position  on  a  ridge 
crossing  the  road  which  Warren  had  taken,  and  had 
struck  him  full  in  front  long  before  Hancock  could  arrest 
his  march  to  the  south  and  swing  in  on  Warren's  left. 
In  the  stubborn  and  bloody  conflict  which  followed,  both 
sides  lost  heavily,  and  neither  gained  any  particular 
advantage. 

In  the  mean  time  Sedgwick  had  been  engaged  by 
Ewell,  and  though  the  latter  made  a  most  determined 
effort  he  was  obliged  to  give  way,  the  rapidly  gathering 
darkness  alone  preventing  the  pursuit  of  the  advantage 
thus  gained.  The  result  of  the  first  day's  contest  was  a 
nearly  equal  loss  in  killed  and  wounded,  but  the  Confed 
erates  claimed  a  thousand  prisoners  to  about  three  hun 
dred  on  the  Union  side. 


i864.]         THE   WILDERNESS  AND  SPOTTSYLVANIA.  36* 

When  Burnside's  corps  came  up  that  night  it  was  dis 
tributed  along  the  weakest  points  of  the  line,  for  General 
Grant  had  ordered  an  advance  from  the  whole  front  for 
the  following  morning  (the  6th)  ;  but,  early  bird  though 
he  was,  the  enemy  stole  a  march  on  him,  and  attempted 
to  turn  his  right  flank,  which  was  held  by  Wright's  divis 
ion  of  Sedgwick's  corps.  The  attack  was  vigorously 
repulsed,  and  as  a  result  the  line  was  enabled  to  advance 
to  a  slightly  more  favorable  position.  The  whole  front 
felt  the  force  of  the  next  blow,  which  came  about  eight, 
o'clock,  and  three  several  attempts  were  made  at  various 
points  before  the  Confederates  succeeded  in  pushing  in 
between  the  corps  and  assailing  first  one  wing  and  then 
the  other.  Aided  by  their  thorough  knowledge  of  the 
field,  they  were  able  to  move  their  forces  from  left  to 
right,  and  back  again,  without  being  observed  from  the 
Union  side,  and  thus  create  the  impression  of  a  much 
larger  attacking  force  than  really  existed. 

The  battle  on  the  left  had  been  opened  by  Hancock's 
corps  in  the  early  morning.  Pushing  boldly  forward,  he 
succeeded  in  driving  back  Hill's  corps  nearly  two  miles 
in  the  direction  of  Parker's  store.  Longstreet  coming  up 
at  this  juncture,  the  tables  are  turned  ;  but  now  the  sturdy 
force  of  the  Ninth  corps  is  brought  into  requisition,  and 
the  game  of  battledore  and  shuttlecock  begins.  Back 
and  forth,  first  one  side  and  then  the  other  holds  the 
advantage,  until  at  length,  by  a  skilful  maneuver,  the 
advancing  foe  is  struck  full  in  the  flank,  is  driven  back 
with  heavy  loss,  and  the  contest  ends  with  the  Union 
troops  holding  substantially  the  same  ground  as  in  the 
morning. 

It  was  nearly  dark,  and  after  practically  a  cessation  of 
hostilities,  when  the  Confederates,  massing  all  their 


362  NINTH  NE  W  HA  MPSHIRE. 


[May, 


strength,  made  a  sudden  onset  at  the  right  flank  of  the 
Union  line,  surprising  and  routing  three  brigades  and 
taking  about  4,000  prisoners.  Sedgwick  finally  restored 
his  lines,  but  it  was  now  so  dark  that  nothing  further, 
offensive  or  defensive,  could  be  accomplished,  and  the 
second  day  of  the  bloody  struggle  was  ended. 

That  night  several  guns  were  brought  up  and  placed 
in  position  on  the  right,  and  at  an  early  hour  Saturday 
morning  opened  fire,  but  elicited  no  response.  Skir 
mishers  were  then  advanced,  and  it  soon  became  evident 
that  Lee  had  had  enough  of  advance  attacks.  With  his 
whole  front  strongly  intrenched,  he  was  ready  to  receive 
but  not  to  give.  General  Grant  had  no  desire  to  prolong 
so  unequal  a  contest  as  the  present  field  of  operations 
promised,  and  the  columns  were  quickly  put  in  motion 
southward,  to  the  higher  and  more  open  ground  around 
Spottsylvania  Court-house.  General  Warren  with  the 
Fifth  corps  had  the  advance,  and  Burnside's  corps 
brought  up  the  rear,  all  the  divisions  except  the  First 
following  the  Sixth  corps  through  Chancellorsville  and 
going  into  bivouac  on  the  road  beyond.  There  was 
some  skirmishing  with  the  enemy  during  the  march,  but 
little  harm  was  done. 

May  9  was  rather  more  exciting  in  its  events.  Gen 
eral  Willcox's  division  of  the  Ninth  corps  had  been 
ordered  to  the  point  where  the  river  Ny  crosses  the  Fred- 
ericksburg  and  Spottsylvania  road,  and  having  made 
an  early  start,  was  within  a  mile  of  the  river  when  the 
advance  encountered  the  enemy's  pickets.  Having 
driven  them  back  to  and  across  the  river,  he  seized  the 
bridge  and  posted  a  brigade  and  two  batteries  of  artillery 
on  a  little  eminence  a  quarter  of  a  mile  beyond.  The 
enemy  made  several  attacks  on  this  position,  but  meeting 


1864.]         THE   WILDERNESS  AND  SPOTTSYLVANIA.  363 

with  a  decided  repulse  at  all  points,  finally  retired. 
Although  the  Second  division  had  prepared  the  way,  the 
t>runt  of  the  fighting  was  borne  by  the  First  and  Third, 
the  Second  not  being  ordered  up  from  the  bridge  until 
late  in  the  afternoon. 

The  remainder  of  the  army  had  had  a  share  in  the 
day's  adventures  as  well.  Lee  had  quickly  divined  the 
plan  of  the  Union  commander,  and  having  the  shorter 
lines  of  the  two,  transferred  his  army  from  the  Wilder 
ness  to  the  vicinity  of  Spottsylvania  Court-house,  and 
having  strongly  fortified  his  position,  awaited  the  arrival 
•of  the  Union  forces.  Again  was  General  Grant  fore 
stalled,  but  nothing  daunted  he  at  once  prepared  for 
-another  contest  of  endurance.  The  loth  of  May  was  a 
day  of  hard  and  bloody  fighting,  and  every  inch  of 
ground  was  contended  for  with  skill  and  valor.  The 
€nemy's  lines  were  between  the  Po  and  Ny  rivers,  and 
well  protected  by  forests  and  marshy  land.  The  Ninth 
corps  held  the  extreme  Union  left,  General  Willcox's 
division  holding  the  position  near  the  river  that  had  been 
so  gallantly  won  the  day  before.  During  the  afternoon 
the  corps  made  an  advance  on  the  enemy  in  the  face  of 
a  heavy  fire,  and  the  First  division  succeeded  in  reach 
ing  a  point  only  a  short  distance  from  the  court-house, 
which  was  held  until  the  order  came  from  head-quarters 
for  its  withdrawal.  Slowly  the  night  settled  down  upon 
the  wearied  and  exhausted  soldiers,  and  yet  the  morrow 
could  only  bring  a  renewal  of  the  struggle,  for  in  spite  of 
the  heavy  losses  on  both  sides  no  decisive  result  had  as 
yet  been  attained  by  either. 

A  heavy  rain  fell  on  the  nth,  and  only  skirmishing 
was  indulged  in,  General  Grant  availing  himself  of  the 
opportunity  to  change  his  base  of  operations  from  the 


364  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [May, 

Rapidan  to  Fredericksburg.  The  week  of  toil  and  blood 
had  borne  fruitful  results  in  misery  and  suffering  if  in 
nothing  else,  and  the  rear  of  the  army  was  a  vast  field 
hospital,  while  the  recesses  of  the  Wilderness  held  hun 
dreds  of  the  unburied  dead  in  their  silent  depths. 

The  brief  respite  ended  with  the  day,  and  it  seemed, 
on  the  morning  of  the  i2th,  as  if  every  man  realized 
that  the  final  test  of  strength  had  come,  for  with  the  dawn 
the  bloody  battle  opened.  General  Hancock's  corps 
began  the  attack,  striking  and  completely  surprising  the 
enemy's  right  centre  and  capturing  and  sending  to  the 
rear  a  host  of  prisoners,  together  with  twenty  pieces  of 
artillery.  Burnside's  corps  shared  in  the  daring  adven 
ture,  and  with  this  auspicious  opening  it  promised  well 
for  the  success  of  the  Union  troops.  But  before  noon  the 
enemy  had  risen  to  the  necessity,  and  for  three  hours  the 
fearful  carnage  went  on,  the  Confederates  trying  in  vain 
to  force  back  the  Union  lines,  but  preventing  any  further 
advance  by  the  withering  fire  they  were  able  to  bring  to 
bear  upon  the  unprotected  soldiers. 

General  Grant,  however,  was  not  content  with  this, 
and  determined  to  turn  the  enemy's  right  flank  if  pos 
sible,  though  the  enterprise  was  rendered  the  more  diffi 
cult  and  dangerous  from  the  marshy  nature  of  the  ground 
at  that  point,  the  showers  of  the  morning  and  the  pre 
vious  day  having  made  it  even  worse  than  usual.  Early 
in  the  afternoon  the  troops  were  massed  upon  the  left, 
and  once  more  the  struggle  for  supremacy  begins.  Again 
and  again  the  troops  press  forward,  and  each  time  they 
meet  with  the  most  stubborn  resistance  from  the  equally 
determined  foe.  Step  by  step  is  the  ground  disputed, 
and  the  deadly  fight  continues  till  the  field  is  covered 
with  the  wounded  and  slain.  Only  as  the  darkness  of 


1864.]         THE   WILDERNESS  AND  SPOTTSYLVANIA.  365 

night  separates  them   from   each  other's  sight  do  friend 
and  foe  cease  to  strive. 

On  the  morning  of  May  n,  General  Grant  had  sent  the 
following  bulletin  to  the  war  department  at  Washington  : 

"We  have  now  ended  the  sixth  day  of  very  heavy 
fighting.  The  result,  to  this  time,  is  much  in  our  favor. 
Our  losses  have  been  heavy,  as  well  as  those  of  the 
enemy.  I  think  the  loss  of  the  enemy  must  be  greater. 
We  have  taken  over  5,000  prisoners  by  battle,  whilst  he 
has  taken  from  us  but  few,  except  stragglers.  1 fro-pose 
to  fight  it  out  on  this  line,  if  it  takes  all  summer  " 

But  the  frightful  carnage  of  the  ensuing  day  put  a 
different  view  on  the  matter.  The  only  special  advan 
tage  had  been  that  gained  by  Hancock,  and  even  that 
was  dearly  bought  by  thousands  of  lives  ;  and  as  Lee 
had  immediately  fortified  a  line  directly  in  front  of  Han 
cock's  position,  his  stand  was  practically  as  invulnerable 
as  ever.  Yet  Spottsylvania  was  not  the  objective  point 
of  the  campaign,  and  if  the  position  was  too  strong  to  be 
forced,  some  device  must  be  employed  to  draw  the 
enemy  from  his  fastnesses.  Several  days  of  maneuver 
ing,  marching,  and  counter-marching  ensued,  and  on 
the  i6th  a  strong  demonstration  was  made  by  the  First 
and  Second  divisions  of  the  Ninth  corps,  for  the  purpose 
of  reconnoitering  the  enemy's  position,  developing  the 
fact  that  he  was  still  in  full  force  and  not  to  be  lured 
from  his  stronghold. 

On  the  i8th  an  action  involving  about  one  half  of  the 
army  was  begun,  and  a  position  rendering  a  portion  of 
the  enemy's  works  untenable  was  obtained,  but  even 
with  this  material  advantage  it  was  hopeless  to  attempt 
to  carry  the  works  in  the  face  of  the  murderous  fire  that 


366  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [May, 

belched  from  the  brazen  throats  of  the  bellowing  guns 
upon  the  heroes  who  vainly  tried  to  surmount  the  bar 
riers,  and  late  in  the  forenoon  the  assault  was  abandoned. 
The  battles  of  the  Wilderness  and  Spottsylvania 
called  for  the  sacrifice  of  no  less  than  40,000  men,  and 
the  North  was  filled  with  the  weeping  and  mourning  of 
the  widowed,  the  fatherless,  and  the  childless.  The 
Confederates,  who  had  fought  for  the  most  part  from 
behind  defences,  had  lost  heavily  as  well,  but  neither 
ardent  patriotism  or  invincible  hatred  had  gained  the  day. 


AGAIN    TO    THE    FRONT. 

The  true  history  of  the  soldier's  life  is  not  without  its 
pathetic  side,  and  the  records  of  the  Ninth  New  Hamp 
shire  chronicle  no  more  touching  incident  than  that  con 
nected  with  the  following  letter,  received  by  the  wife  of 
Captain  Smith  on  the  very  day  that  he  was  killed,  May 
12,  1864  : 

CAMP  pTH  N.  H.  VOL.  INFT. 
BRISTOE  STATION,  Va.,  May  3,  1864. 
MY  DEAR  WIFE  : 

I  have  sent  you  several  lines  since  I  left  home,  and 
under  the  circumstances  they  were  short,  as  no  infor 
mation  is  allowed  to  pass  to  the  rear.  My  health  is  as 
good  as  usual.  We  are  expecting  to  move  any  hour.  I 
suppose  that  if  you  hear  from  me,  and  have  only  a  few 
lines,  you  will  excuse  me  under  the  circumstances.  I 
should  like  to  write  many  things,  but  in  justice  to  all  I 
shall  forbear.  Give  my  love  to  all,  and  accept  these 
few  lines  from  your  loving  and  affectionate  husband. 
In  haste, 

ORVILLE    SMITH,  Captain, 
Co.  B,  yth  JV.  H.    Voh.,  2d  Brig.,  2d  Div.,  qth  A.  C. 


. 


CAPT.  ORVILLE  SMITH.  Co.  B. 


1864.]         THE   WILDERNESS  AND  SPOTTSYLVANIA.  367 

In  the  afternoon  of  May  3,  at  the  close  of  battalion 
drill  and  target  practice,  the  division  was  ordered  to  be 
ready  to  move  at  six  o'clock  on  the  following  morning, 
with  six  days  rations.  This  meant  that  hot  work  was 
not  far  away,  and  there  was  considerable  disappointment 
expressed  when,  as  the  men  were  preparing  for  an  early 
start  with  the  rest  of  the  division,  it  was  announced  that 
the  Ninth  New  Hampshire  and  Thirty-second  Maine 
were  detailed  to  guard  the  surplus  baggage  and  rations 
left  on  the  camp-ground,  and  were  to  remain  at  the  sta 
tion  until  relieved.  The  delay  was  not  for  long,  how 
ever,  for  relief  came  that  very  afternoon,  and  it  was  only 
a  short  time  before  their  hasty  preparations  were  com 
pleted  and  they  were  pushing  on  to  rejoin  the  command. 
Nightfall  came  on  before  two  miles  had  been  covered, 
and  the  two  lone  regiments  bivouacked  on  an  old  camp 
ground  which  had  served  as  winter  quarters  for  a  portion 
of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac. 

As  early  as  half-past  two  on  the  morning  of  the  5th 
the  men  were  routed  out,  and  twenty  miles,  through  a 
desolate,  uninhabited  region,  were  told  off  by  the  mile- 
posts  before  the  halt  for  the  night  was  made,  at  Rappa- 
hannock  Station.  The  halt  for  dinner  had  been  made 
at  Warrenton  Junction,  which  was  readily  recognized  by 
the  men  of  the  Ninth  as  the  place  where  they  had  bid 
den  farewell  to  their  old  commander,  Colonel  Fellows, 
some  eighteen  months  before.  The  officers  of  the 
Thirty-second  Maine,  which  was  a  new  regiment,  had 
hard  work  to  make  their  men  keep  up  with  the  old-timers 
on  the  march,  but  even  they  were  tired  enough  to  wel 
come  the  order  to  "Stack  arms,  and  make  comfortable 
for  the  night ! " 

The  next  day  the  march  was  resumed  at  daylight,  the 


.368  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [May, 

Rappahannock  was  crossed,  and  Germania  ford  on  the 
Rapidan  was  reached  about  noon.  The  day  had  been 
warm  for  the  season,  and  a  halt  for  dinner  and  rest  was 
ordered  before  crossing  the  river.  In  the  afternoon  the 
Ninth  moved  on  to  the  Wilderness,  and  soon  found  and 
joined  the  rest  of  their  brigade,  taking  up  their  position 
in  the  second  or  supporting  line.  Heavy  cannonading 
had  been  heard  since  the  early  morning,  but  the  men 
scarcely  realized  how  fierce  a  contest  was  going  on  until 
they  found  themselves  in  the  thick  of  the  fight.  Some 
of  the  regiments  of  the  brigade  had  been  hotly  engaged 
before  the  Ninth  came  upon  the  field,  but  it  was  then  so 
near  sunset  that  hostilities  soon  ceased  for  the  night. 

o 

All  was  quiet  the  next  morning  when,  at  early  dawn, 
the  Ninth  New  Hampshire  was  ordered  to  a  position  in 
a  piece  of  woods  at  the  front,  the  Thirty-second  Maine 
being  stationed  at  the  left,  and  the  Fourteenth  New 
York  at  the  right,  of  the  regiment.  The  men  at  once 
set  to  work  to  protect  themselves  with  a  line  of  defences, 
and  by  noon  had  completed  them  in  good  shape.  There 
was  heavy  fighting  just  to  the  right  of  the  line  all  the 
forenoon,  and  the  men  were  momentarily  expecting  the 
order  to  drop  the  shovel  for  the  musket,  but  by  afternoon 
the  battle  was  raging  farther  away  to  the  right,  and  the 
line  was  left  undisturbed.  Towards  night  they  were 
relieved  by  other  troops,  and  the  boys  began  to  think 
that  luck  was  against  them  this  time,  for  shortly  after 
they  left  the  field  the  Confederates  charged  the  line  and 
were  repulsed  with  heavy  loss.  The  night  was  passed 
with  the  division,  in  an  open  field,  the  men  sleeping  all 
night  with  their  arms  in  their  hands. 

The  next  day  was  Sunday,  but  the  soldiers  had  long 
•ceased  to  look  upon  Sunday  as  a  day  of  rest.  At  day- 


1864.]          THE   WILDERNESS  AND  SPOTTSYLVANIA.  369 

break  they  were  on  the  road  to  Chancellorsville,  which 
was  reached,  after  a  hot  and  dusty  march,  about  nine  in 
the  forenoon.  After  a  brief  halt  to  draw  rations  the 
regiment  moved  on  a  short  distance,  and  took  up  position 
behind  the  breastworks  thrown  up  by  Hooker  for  his 
artillery  in  the  great  battle  of  the  preceding  year.  At 
this  stage  of  the  game  Chancellorsville  was  the  extreme 
right  position,  and  was  occupied  by  the  Second  brigade. 
There  was  no  engagement  at  this  end  of  the  line,  and 
the  remainder  of  the  day  passed  quietly. 

Many  of  the  men  were  interested  in  examining  their 
surroundings.  A  little  in  front  of  the  ground  occupied 
by  the  Ninth  a  slight  eminence  marked  the  spot  where 
Stonewall  Jackson  received  his  death-wound.  In  the 
woods  to  the  right,  which  had  been  held  by  the  infantry 
of  Hooker's  right  wing,  the  ground  was  still  strewn  with 
the  debris  of  battle,  and  on  every  hand  were  the  mounds 
where  the  slain  had  been  partially — and  only  partially — 
covered  with  earth,  and  from  which  heads,  hands,  and 
feet  of  skeletons  protruded.  It  was  not  a  pleasant  scene 
to  contemplate,  to  say  the  least,  in  view  of  a  possible 
occupancy  themselves. 

The  regiment  rested  at  Chancellorsville  till  near  even 
ing  of  the  pth,  when  they  were  relieved  by  a  brigade  of 
the  Fourth  division,  and  moved  up  the  plank  road  toward 
Fredericksburg,  the  bivouac  for  the  night  again  being 
on  historic  ground, — this  time  in  an  orchard  behind  the 
fortifications  thrown  up  by  Lee  in  the  winter  of  1862-3, 
to  protect  his  rear  at  the  time  when  Burnside  had  at 
tempted  an  attack  and  got  stuck  in  the  mud. 

It  was  a  little  after  noon  of  the  loth  when  the  regiment 
was  ordered  in.  A  rapid  march  of  five  miles,  through 
bushes  and  scrubby  undergrowth,  brought  them  to  the 


XXIV 


370  NINTH  NE  W  HAMPSHIRE.  [ M ay, 

front,  where  the  brigade  at  once  got  into  position.  The 
Ninth  had  been  assigned  to  the  rifle-pits,  and  very  short 
ly  after  getting  comfortably  placed  discovered  that  a 
change  in  tactics  had  exposed  them  to  a  hot  artillery  fire. 
However,  there  was  nothing  to  do  but  lie  still  and  take 
it,  with  never  a  chance  to  give  a  shot  in  return.  The 
first  shell  to  do  any  damage  struck  near  Company  H, 
wounding  two  men — the  first  loss  of  the  campaign.  The 
firing  ceased  at  dusk,  but  the  men  lay  on  their  arms  all 
night,  suffering  some  from  the  chilly  air,  as  they  were 
without  blankets. 

Here  they  remained  until  the  middle  of  the  following 
afternoon,  when  they  were  ordered  to  move  back  about 
two  miles  for  the  purpose  of  drawing  rations.  Supper 
was  hastily  eaten,  and  then  back  on  the  double-quick  to 
nearly  their  former  position.  There  was  a  heavy  shower 
just  at  nightfall,  the  rain  continuing  through  the  night, 
and  as  the  men  had  neither  tents  nor  blankets  with  them 
they  were  thoroughly  wetland  chilled  before  morning. 

The  quiet  of  the  night,  following  the  hurried  move 
ments  of  the  afternoon,  was  something  of  a  surprise  to 
the  men,  but  subsequent  events  soon  cleared  up  the 
attendant  mystery.  That  afternoon  General  Grant  had 
called  a  council  of  war,  at  which  the  question  of  a 
retreat,  or  withdrawal  to  the  other  side  of  the  Rappahan- 
nock,  was  freely  discussed ;  Hancock  and  several  others 
advocating  the  wisdom  of  such  a  course.  Grant  heard 
his  corps  commanders'  suggestions,  and  then  gave  them 
all  sealed  orders,  to  be  opened  simultaneously  on  reach 
ing  their  respective  commands.  To  the  surprise  of  most 
of  them,  these  orders  were  found  to  direct  an  advance, 
which  resulted  in  the  hot  battles  of  the  next  few  days, 
followed  by  the  flank  movement  toward  the  North  Anna. 


1 864.]  THE   WILDERNESS  A  ND  SPO  TTS  YL  VANIA .  371 

It  is  probable  that  the  withdrawal  and  subsequent  mass 
ing  of  the  troops  which  occurred  that  afternoon  was  to  get 
in  shape  for  whatever  course  of  action  the  council  might 
result  in,  and  the  return  was  in  pursuance  with  Grant's 
order  to  advance.  Had  Grant  at  this  critical  juncture  of 
affairs  weakened  and  retreated,  the  outcome  of  the  war 
might  have  easily  been  different ;  in  fact,  it  was  a  current 
remark  among  the  troops  at  the  time,  that  if  any  one  but 
Grant  were  in  command  there  would  be  a  retreat,  and  a 
re-enactment  of  the  previous  Virginia  campaigns.  In 
Grant's  vocabulary,  however,  the  word  "Retreat" 
appeared  to  have  been  left  out,  and,  beaten  or  victorious, 
he  pushed  ahead  all  the  same. 

At  daybreak  on  the  I2th  the  battle  opened  with  an 
assault  from  the  Union  lines.  At  about  four  o'clock  a 
signal  of  four  field-pieces  discharged  in  rapid  succession 
was  given,  and  "  Forward  !  "  was  the  word.  The  Second 
brigade  had  the  extreme  right  of  the  Ninth  corps,  and 
the  Ninth  New  Hampshire  had  the  right  of  the  brigade. 
The  Second  corps  was  at  the  right,  though  somewhat  in 
advance,  and,  owing  to  a  thick  fog  which  enveloped 
both  friend  and  foe,  succeeded  in  surprising  the  enemy, 
and  captured  an  entire  division,  together  with  several 
guns  and  numerous  stands  of  colors. 

The  Ninth  corps  now  had  the  right  of  way,  and 
pushing  rapidly  forward — over  rough  ground,  across  a 
steep,  miry  creek,  then  through  a  stretch  of  forest  with 
its  tangle  of  undergrowth — soon  came  upon  the  extreme 
left  of  the  Second  corps,  who,  behind  the  breastworks 
they  had  just  captured,  were  busily  preparing  to  meet 
the  counter-charge  which  a  body  of  Confederate  troops 
was  about  beginning.  The  Ninth  New  Hampshire  had 
got  a  little  in  advance  of  the  rest  of  the  brigade,  and  as 


37 2  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [May, 

they  came  into  view  a  staff  officer  of  the  Second  corps 
rode  up  on  the  gallop.  Hastily  inquiring  of  Major 
Chandler,  who  was  in  command  of  the  regiment,  what 
troops  they  were,  he  exclaimed,  "For  God's  sake,  Ma 
jor,  change  front  and  come  in  our  left — they  are  flank 
ing  us  ! " 

The  major  only  partially  comprehended  the  situation* 
but  clear  and  sharp  came  the  order — "Change  front, 
forward  on  Tenth  company  ! "  The  order  was  promptly 
obeyed,  and  the  advance  continued  for  thirty  or  forty 
rods,  along  what  had  been  the  front  of  the  Confederate 
line,  and  over  a  tangle  of  scrub  pine  and  brush  which 
they  had  cut  down.  Just  then  the  fog  lifted,  and  there 
face  to  face,  not  ten  rods  away,  was  a  whole  division  of 
the  enemy,  advancing  in  column  of  regiments  and  five  or 
six  lines  of  battle  deep  ! 

The  regiment  at  once  halted  and  commenced  firing, 
but  many  of  the  rifles  were  wet  and  could  not  be  fired 
until  freshly  primed,  and  this  weakened  the  fire  some 
what.  In  spite  of  this  drawback,  and  the  fact  that  a 
large  proportion  of  the  regiment  was  composed  of  raw 
recruits,  the  volley  of  musket  balls  brought  the  advanc 
ing  column  to  a  standstill,  but  only  for  a  moment.  By 
that  time  the  Confederate  commander  had  taken  in  the 
isolated  position  of  the  regiment,  and  throwing  out  four 
full  regiments  onto  their  unprotected  left  flank,  subjected 
them  to  a  raking  cross-fire  which  it  was  simply  impos 
sible  to  endure.  Major  Chandler  gave  the  order  to  fall 
back  slowly,  keeping  up  their  fire ;  but  the  enemy  at 
once  pressed  forward  on  the  run,  and  the  choice  lay 
between  capture  or  an  immediate  retreat  to  the  crest  of  the 
little  ridge  just  in  the  edge  of  the  timber  where  the  regi 
ment  had  changed  front  for  the  advance. 


1864.]  THE   WILDERNESS  AND  SPOTTSYLVANIA.  373 

The  ridge  was  reached.  The  remnant  of  the  regiment 
— for  the  galling  fire  to  which  they  had  succumbed  had 
sadly  lessened  their  number — rallied,  another  line  of  bat 
tle  was  formed,  and  bravely  facing  the  host  of  their  pur 
suers  the  men  began  firing.  All  had  gone  well  until  the 
major  was  wounded  in  the  thigh  and  was  carried  from 
the  field  ;  but  the  enemy  was  now  close  upon  them,  and 
the  regiment,  under  the  command  of  Captain  Stone,  fell 
back  still  farther  into  the  woods. 

In  the  mean  time  the  rest  of  the  brigade  had  come  up 
just  in  season  to  strike  the  Confederate  column  in  flank 
the  moment  after  it  had  routed  the  Ninth,  and  after  an 
obstinate  fight  compelled  them  to  fall  back  and  take  posi 
tion  ;  so  that  the  ground  where  the  Ninth  first  encoun 
tered  them  finally  became  the  middle  position  between 
the  lines,  and  both  sides  soon  intrenched,  keeping  up  a 
hot  fire  on  each  other  for  the  rest  of  the  day.  At  night 
fall  a  portion  of  the  regiment  \vas  sent  to  the  right, 
to  occupy  with  a  cordon  of  picket  posts  a  little  space 
between  the  lines  of  the  Second  and  Ninth  corps.  The 
night  was  showery,  and  the  picket  detail  had  a  dreary 
task  before  they  were  relieved  in  the  early  morning  of 
the  1 3th.  All  that  day  the  regiment,  with  its  brigade, 
lay  behind  the  intrenchments  in  double  line  of  battle, 
with  a  skirmish  line  outside  the  breastworks  keeping  up 
a  desultory  fire. 

A  portion  of  the  ground  charged  over  the  day  before 
was  now  inside  the  lines,  but  the  place  where  the  Ninth 
had  first  encountered  the  Confederate  column  lay  outside, 
and  after  nightfall  a  party  of  volunteers  went  out  to  bring 
off  the  wounded  belonging  to  the  regiment,  finding  sev 
eral  and  getting  them  safely  off  the  field.  All  the  long, 
cold  night  the  men  lay  on  their  arms  in  the  trenches, 


374  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [May, 

getting  what  sleep  was  possible  under  such  wretched 
conditions.  The  rain  ceased  with  the  dawn,  and  the 
regiment  as  a  whole  was  allowed  to  rest  through  the  day, 
though  heavy  details  were  continually  made  on  the  men 
for  one  purpose  and  another.  That  evening  another 
searching  party  went  out,  and  succeeded  in  finding  and 
bringing  off  thirty  of  their  dead  comrades.  The  task  of 
these  volunteers  was  a  hard  and  even  dangerous  one,  as 
the  skirmishers,  except  at  the  point  where  the  party  had 
gone  through  the  lines,  were  firing  more  or  less  all  the 
time. 

The  i5th  of  May  marked  the  second  Sabbath  spent  in 
the  field,  and  the  first  detail  of  the  morning  was  for  the 
burial  of  the  dead.  The  bodies  were  all  placed  in  one 
long  trench,  the  cold,  damp  earth  was  hastily  shovelled 
in,  and  with  a  tear  on  their  cheek  for  the  dead,  and  a 
silent  prayer  for  the  living  on  their  lips,  the  men  hurried 
back  to  the  trenches.  The  regiment  had  been  roused 
about  three  o'clock,  and  put  in  readiness  for  an  attack, 
should  one  be  made.  For  three  nights  now  the  men  had 
got  only  a  couple  hours  of  sleep  in  a  night,  and  none  in 
the  daytime,  and  the  long  strain  was  beginning  to  tell. 
The  only  change  in  the  position  of  the  regiment  during 
the  day  was  a  slight  move  to  the  right,  which  gave  them 
the  extreme  right  of  the  corps.  During  the  afternoon 
the  Confederate  batteries  threw  a  few  scattering  shells 
over  their  heads,  as  they  lay  in  the  rifle-pits,  but  fortu 
nately  no. one  was  injured. 

Under  cover  of  the  thick  fog  seven  more  bodies  were 
recovered  on  the  morning  of  the  i6th.  The  list  of  casu 
alties  on  the  1 2th  accounts  for  sixty-two  as  killed,  accord 
ing  to  Fox's  "  Regimental  Losses."  Among  the  officers, 
Captain  Smith  had  been  killed,  and  Major  Chandler  and 


MAJOR  GEORGE  H.  CHANDLER. 


1864.]          THE  WILDERNESS  AND  SPOTTSYLVANIA.  375 

five  lieutenants  severely  wounded.  Lieutenant-Colonel 
Babbitt,  who  had  been  detailed  to  command  the  Thirty- 
second  Maine  on  the  yth,  was  also  badly  wounded,  and 
the  command  of  the  regiment  thus  devolved  upon  Cap 
tain  Stone.  Captain  Edgerly  of  Company  C  had  been 
killed  on  the  6th,  and  altogether  the  regiment  suffered 
severely.  As  one  man  remarked,  "If  we  have  to  go  in 
again,  there  won't  be  anybody  left  to  keep  tally  !" 

All  that  day  the  regiment  lay  quietly  behind  the  breast 
works,  and  there  was  but  little  firing  along  the  line.  A 
body  of  skirmishers  was  thrown  out  from  the  Eleventh 
New  Hampshire  to  feel  the  enemy,  and  lost  fifteen  men 
in  a  very  few  minutes,  which  was  pretty  strong  evidence 
that  the  enemy  were  still  in  force.  For  the  first  time  in 
a  fortnight  the  men  were  given  an  opportunity  to  write 
home,  and  the  mail  which  went  out  that  night  wras  heavily 
freighted. 

On  the  iyth  the  men  were  ordered  to  the  rear  to  draw 
rations,  which  gave  them  a  chance  to  get  the  "kinks" 
out  of  their  legs.  For  eight  days  and  nights  they  had 
been  under  fire,  with  only  a  few  hours'  sleep,  wet  to  the 
skin  most  of  the  time  by  the  heavy  rains,  with  no  warm 
food  or  drink,  and  the  sergeant  who  pulled  off  his  boots 
and  found  the  legs  of  his  trousers  covered  with  green 
mould,  was  not  to  be  blamed  for  thinking  he  was  "booked 
for  the  graveyard  sure  ! " 

The  Ninth  did  picket  duty  in  front  of  the  rifle-pits 
through  the  night  of  the  lyth,  which  passed  quietly. 
Returning  behind  the  breastworks  just  before  daylight 
of  the  i8th,  they  were  ordered  out  again  almost  immedi- 
diately,  with  the  brigade,  as  supports  for  a  division  of 
the  Second  corps,  which  was  to  charge  the  enemy  at 
sunrise.  The  charge  was  soon  made,  the  supporting 


376  NINTH' NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [May, 

brigade  receiving  a  sharp  fire  from  the  enemy's  batteries. 
The  attacking  force  carried  the  first  line  of  works,  but 
were  themselves  driven  from  the  second,  and  falling 
back  in  confusion  upon  the  brigade,  disordered  their 
ranks  and  swept  them  back  as  well.  The  brigade 
quickly  rallied,  however,  and  pushing  forward,  took 
position  near  the  works  which  the  advance  had  uncov 
ered,  keeping  up  a  skirmish  fire  till  nearly  nightfall, 
when  they  were  ordered  back  behind  the  breastworks. 
The  day's  losses  in  the  Ninth  New  Hampshire  were, — 
Captain  Stone,  commanding  the  regiment,  mortally 
wounded,  besides  six  privates  killed.  The  adjutant- 
general's  official  report  gives  a  total  of  sixty-two  killed, 
between  the  dates  of  May  12  and  18  ;  but  according  to 
Fox's  "Regimental  Losses,"  the  Ninth  New  Hamp 
shire  between  May  12  and  18  sustained  a  total  loss  of 
sixty-eight  killed  and  over  two  hundred  wounded. 

A  redoubtable  major  who  was  in  command  of  one 
of  the  newer  regiments,  had  created  considerable  amuse 
ment  by  rallying  his  men  immediately  in  the  rear  of  the 
Ninth.  "Here,  boys,"  he  shouted,  "get  right  in  here 
behind  the  Ninth  New  Hampshire  fellers  !  It's  the  best 
place  we  can  get."  Just  then  he  discovered  that  his 
sword  had  fallen  from  its  scabbard  during  his  retreat  to 
safe  quarters,  and  he  began  to  shout  again.  "  O  boys, 
I  Ve  lost  my  sword  !  Five  dollars  reward  to  any  man 
that  '11  go  back  and  find  my  sword  !  "  But  his  liberal 
offer  found  no  takers,  and  some  wag  suggested  to  him 
the  propriety  of  hunting  up  his  sword  himself,  and  thus 
save  the  reward. 

That  night  the  regiment  lay  on  the  "  oft' duty  "  line, 
and  anticipated  getting  a  night's  sleep  ;  but  there  was  no 
"  rest  for  the  weary"  they  found,  for  at  half-past  one  in 


1864.]          THE   WILDERNESS  AND  SPO TTSYLVANIA.  377 

the  morning  they  were  called  up,  and  moved  to  the 
vicinity  of  Burnside's  head-quarters.  After  the  hasty 
and  scanty  breakfast,  there  was  another  move,  this  time 
about  two  miles,  to  the  left  and  front,  where  the  brigade 
formed  a  line  of  battle  and  lay  in  the  edge  of  an  oak 
forest  during  the  rest  of  the  day.  This  outing  was  a 
pleasant  relief  from  the  monotony  of  the  gloomy  pine 
forest  where  so  many  wearisome  days  and  nights  had 
been  passed,  and  the  sight  of  a  field  of  corn, — the  tender 
blades  fluttering  softly  in  the  morning  air, — together  with 
the  arrival  of  a  mail, — the  first  for  three  weeks — colored 
the  sleep  of  the  wearied,  exhausted  soldiers  with  dreams 
of  their  far-away  homes  among  the  New  Hampshire  hills. 

That  night  the  men  slept  through,  undisturbed  by 
friend  or  foe,  and  remained  quiet  through  the  day  fol 
lowing,  with  the  exception  of  a  scouting  party,  which  went 
out  abaut  three  miles,  and  finding  everything  quiet,  re 
turned  to  camp.  Rations  were  drawn  in  the  afternoon,  and 
preparations  were  made  in  anticipation  of  a  move  on  the 
morrow.  The  forenoon  of  the  2ist  a  reconnoissance  in 
force  was  made,  but  no  enemy  appearing,  the  brigade 
fell  back  to  its  old  position  about  noon.  At  three  o'clock 
the  whole  corps  was  put  in  motion,  and  moved  south 
ward.  Towards  five  o'clock  the  advance  wras  shelled 
from  a  battery  across  the  Ny,  and  this  caused  a  halt  till 
about  midnight.  Then  the  road  towards  Fredericksburg 
was  followed  till  daylight. 

A  halt  for  breakfast  was  ordered  at  daybreak,  and 
after  making  coffee  the  men  were  allowed  a  short  time 
to  rest.  The  column  once  more  in  motion,  the  march 
was  continued  through  Bowling  Green,  across  Matta- 
pony  creek,  and  then  on  and  on,  until  at  sunset  the 
nearly  exhausted  troops  turned  into  the  \voods  and 


3  7 8  NINTH  NE  W  HAMPSHIRE.  [May, 

encamped  for  the  night.  Starting  about  seven  o'clock 
on  the  morning  of  the  23d,  the  column  moved  slowly  on 
through  the  forenoon,  the  only  incident  to  break  the 
monotony  being  the  passing  of  General  Grant  and  his 
staff',  the  boys  getting  a  near-by  view  of  the  "  Stars." 
Steadily  pressing  onward,  through  field  and  forest,  and 
seemingly  in  every  direction,  the  troops  at  last  emerged 
near  Ox  ford,  on  the  North  Anna,  where  they  bivouacked 
for  the  night. 

TOLD   BY    THE   CAMP-FIRE. 

Captain  Copp. — At  Spottsylvania  Court-house,  on  the 
I2th,  we  had  driven  the  rebels  out  of  one  line  of  works, 
and  had  lain  down  on  the  outside,  not  being  supported 
by  the  other  troops.  The  rebels  rallied,  and  four  regi 
ments  came  down  and  attacked  us.  We  held  the  line 
until  they  reached  us,  and  actually  took  hold  of  some 
of  the  men  and  drew  them  over  the  other  side  of 
the  works.  Then  Major  Chandler,  who  was  standing 
near  me,  said,  "  Copp,  this  is  tough,  is  n't  it?  We  shall 
have  to  get  out ! "  at  the  same  time  giving  the  command 
to  withdraw — "Every  man  for  himself!"  or  something 
of  that  kind. 

The  major  and  myself  started  along  together,  and  had 
gone  perhaps  three  or  four  rods  when  the  major  pitched 
forward  on  his  face,  exclaiming,  "  I  am  wounded  !  Help 
me  off!  "  I  took  hold  of  his  arm  and  assisted  him  along 
two  or  three  rods,  and  then  he  fell  again.  I  got  him 
along  a  rod  or  two  farther,  and  he  fell  the  third  time. 
This  time  he  was  nearly  exhausted,  and  looking  up  to 
me,  he  said,  "  For  God's  sake,  Copp,  do  n't  let  those  d — d 
cusses  get  hold  of  me  ! "  "All  right,  Major,"  said  I, 


1864.]  THE  WILDERNESS  AND  SPOTTSYLVANIA.  379 

"I'll  either  get  you  off,  or  stay  with  you;"  and  calling 
to  some  of  the  men  who  were  retreating,  I  said,  "The 
major  is  wounded  ;  help  me  to  take  him  off!  " 

A  man  quickly  uncoiled  his  blanket,  and  we  rolled  the 
major  onto  it.  Three  men,  with  myself,  started  with 
him  on  the  run,  dragging  him  over  the  ground,  and 
through  the  bushes,  till  I  began  to  think  if  he  was  n't 
dead  we  should  certainly  kill  him  before  we  could  get 
him  out  of  the  line  of  fire.  A  little  to  the  rear  of  the 
works  which  we  had  carried  was  a  line  of  old  works, 
and  I  thought  I  could  rally  the  men  enough  to  check  the 
advance  of  the  rebels,  in  order  to  save  the  major.  I 
looked  for  the  colors,  but  they  were  not  in  sight.  We 
went  on  a  rod  or  two  farther,  and  then  I  saw  the  color- 
bearer,  James  Prendable,  lying  on  the  ground  with  the 
colors  drawn  under  him.  Supposing  he  had  lain  down 
to  surrender,  I  gave  him  a  kick  and  said,  "Jim,  what 
are  you  down  there  for?  Get  up!"  He  looked  up  at 
me — his  face  white  as  a  sheet — and  said,  "  Captain,  I 
can't ;  I  'm  hit !  "  I  saw  by  his  appearance  that  he  cer 
tainly  was. 

Drawing  the  colors  from  under  him,  I  ran  back  and 
forth  along  the  line  of  the  retreating  men  with  the  col 
ors,  shouting  "Rally  on  the  colors,  boys  !  Rally  on  the 
colors!"  That  stopped  them,  and  I  placed  the  flagstaff 
in  that  line  of  old  breastworks,  sixty  or  seventy  of  the 
men  gathered  around  the  colors,  and  facing  upon  their 
pursuers  began  to  load  and  fire.  The  men's  guns  were 
wet,  and  not  more  than  half  of  them  would  go.  Some 
of  the  men,  after  two  or  three  trials,  would  throw  away 
their  guns,  and  taking  one  from  a  dead  or  wounded 
comrade,  see  if  that  would  go.  I  never  heard  so  much 
swearing  in  my  life  as  there  was  that  morning  about 


380  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [May, 

those  guns.  In  the  mean  time  the  men  had  got  the 
major  a  little  farther  to  the  rear,  and  as  it  was  no  use  for 
a  handful  of  us  to  stay  there  with  all  that  rebel  horde 
bearing  down  on  us,  we  all  took  to  our  heels,  Corporal 
Parsons  snatching  the  colors  from  the  works  and  carry 
ing  them  safely  to  the  rear.  And  that 's  the  story  of  how 
we  saved  the  major  and  the  colors. 


Captain  Copp's  heroic  conduct  on  the  field  at  Spottsyl- 
vania,  as  well  as  his  gallant  rescue  of  the  colors  at 
Fredericksburg,  December  12,  1862,  won  for  him  the 
Medal  of  Honor  given  by  congress  for  deeds  of  special 
bravery,  a  merited  recognition  of  a  patriotic  and  true- 
hearted  man. 


TWO    LETTERS. 

IN  HOSPITAL,  FREDERICKSBURG,  VA., 

FRIDAY  NOON,  May  13,  1864. 
MY  DEAR  WILLIAM  : 

I  was  severely  wounded  in  the  engagement  of  the  pth 
and  6th  corps  near  Spottsylvania  C.  H.  early  yesterday 
morning.  The  ball  entered  my  right  thigh  and  passed 
directly  through,  but  fortunately  did  not  enter  the  bone. 
I  am  doing  well.  Arrived  here  about  an  hour  ago,  and 
hope  to  get  to  Washington,  and  thence  home,  before 
long.  Do  not  be  at  all  alarmed  about  me. 

Yours  in  haste, 

GEORGE  H.  CHANDLER. 

FREDERICKSBURG,  VA.,  May  17,  1864. 
Since  my  letter  of  Friday  last  I  have  continued  about 
the  same,  suffering  very  much,  but  cheerful  and  full  of 


1864.]  THE   WILDERNESS  AND  SPOTTSYLVANIA.          381 

hope.  My  wound,  though  very  deep  and  severe,  is  not 
called  by  surgeons  a  dangerous  one,  and  my  recovery 
of  a  very  fair  use  of  my  leg  is  only  a  question  of  time. 
I  am  having  good  medical  attendance,  and  as  good 
care  and  good  nursing  as  can  be  afforded  under  present 
circumstances.  Rollins  and  Ordway  sent  a  man  from 
Washington  specially  to  look  after  me.  He  is  here 
now,  and  will  probably  remain  as  long  as  I  do. 

I  expect  to  leave  for  Washington  in  a  few  days,  and 
am  only  waiting  for  some  day  when  I  can  take  the 
ambulance  journey  from  here  to  Belle  Plain  with  the 
least  inconvenience.  From  there  we  take  a  steamer, 
and  the  route  is  easy.  Colonel  Babbitt  was  seriously 
wounded  on  Thursday,  and  now  shares  the  same  mattress 
with  me.  He  is  as  comfortable  as  could  be  expected. 
We  now  occupy  the  house  of  Major  Slaughter,  whose 
name  has  been  rendered  infamous  for  decoying  our 
wounded  into  the  hands  of  the  rebels. 

Give  my  love  to  Kate  and  William,  and  to  Aunt  Betsey, 
and  say  to  her  that  if  she  has  not  disposed  of  uncle's 
crutches,  air-beds,  easy-chairs,  etc.,  I  shall  probably 
need  most  of  the  stuff,  such  as  is  adapted  to  a  cripple. 
Do  not  grieve  about  me,  I  am  among  kind  friends,  have 
money  enough,  and  shall  not  lack  anything.  I  hope  to 

see  you  soon. 

Affectionately  yours, 

GEORGE  H.  CHANDLER. 


Cap.  C.  D.  Copp. — Soon  after  the  terrible  loss  of 
our  regiment  at  Spottsylvania,  Va.,  May  12,  1864,  and 
while  we  were  on  the  front  line,  waiting  for,  we  knew 
not  what,  I  noticed  that  Joseph  Dufney  of  my  company 


382  NINTH  NE  W  HA  MPSHIRE.  [  M  ay , 

was  very  sober  and  quiet.  My  attention  was  called  to 
this  from  the  fact  that  he  was  usually  very  lively  and 
social,  consequently  a  general  favorite  with  all  the  boys. 
One  day  while  he  was  standing  by  the  camp-fire,  wait 
ing  for  his  coffee  to  boil,  and  looking  as  though  he  had 
lost  his  last  friend,  I  said  to  him,  "Joe,  what  is  the 
matter  with  you  lately  ?  You  do  n't  act  like  yourself." 
Without  looking  up,  or  changing  his  position,  he  replied, 
with  a  shake  of  his  head,  "Something  going  to  happen 
to  me,  Capt!"  "  Nonsense,  Joe,"  said  I;  "cheer  up! 
Something  's  just  as  likely  to  happen  to  me  as  to  you. 
Do  n't  be  so  down-hearted.  You're  just  as  likely  to  come 
out  of  this  and  go  home  all  right  as  I  am  ;  "  and  walking 
along  to  the  earthworks  in  front  the  circumstance  passed 
from  my  mind  for  the  time. 

The  1 8th  of  May,  the  next  day  after  this  I  think,  just 
at  daybreak  a  rumor  came  to  us  that  we  were  to  be 
relieved  and  go  to  the  rear  for  a  rest,  and  very  soon  we 
were  ordered  into  line  ready  to  move.  Almost  at  the 
same  moment  a  body  of  troops  appeared  in  our  rear, 
advancing  in  line  of  battle.  We  were  ordered  to  lie 
down,  and  they,  passing  over  us,  and  up  over  our  breast 
works,  moved  rapidly  into  the  woods  to  attack  the  enemy 
in  our  front.  We  were  immediately  ordered  into  line  of 
battle,  and  moved  by  the  flank  a  short  distance  to  the 
left,  and  then  to  the  front  again,  advancing  as  a  support 
to  the  troops  who  had  just  passed  over  us,  and  who 
were  already  having  hot  work  just  beyond  the  woods, 
where  they  found  the  enemy  in  full  force. 

It  was  close  work.  The  bullets,  shot,  and  shell  were 
already  getting  in  their  deadly  work  in  our  own  regi 
ment.  Men  were  falling  :  some  killed,  others  wounded  ; 
but  the  order,  "Forward,  men!  Forward!"  was  still 


1864]  THE   WILDERNESS  AND  SPOTTSYLVANIA.  383 

heard  along  the  line.  In  going  through  the  woods 
already  spoken  of  our  line  became  broken,  and  as  we 
came  to  an  opening  I  was  ordered  to  halt  with  the  colors, 
and  my  company,  and  wait  for  the  remainder  of  my  reg 
iment  to  reform  on  my  right  and  left.  Dufney  was  in 
his  place  in  the  front  rank  on  the  right  of  the  company, 
steady,  erect,  face  to  the  front. 

We  can  now  see  that  it  was  a  mistake  to  halt  just  there, 
for  it  was  in  an  exposed  position,  directly  in  line  of  fire 
from  the  enemy's  artillery  as  well  as  infantry.  Shells 
were  exploding  all  about  us,  bullets  were  thinning  our 
ranks ;  seconds  seemed  minutes,  minutes  hours,  while 
we  \vaited.  Suddenly  there  came  a  terrific  explosion, 
almost  in  my  face.  Smoke  and  dirt  filled  the  air.  The 
right  of  my  company  seemed  to  melt  into  the  ground. 
After  the  dirt  had  settled  and  the  smoke  cleared,  I  saw 
that  the  right  of  my  company  had  indeed  melted  away. 
Some  lay  upon  the  ground  killed,  others  with  horrible 
wounds  were  crawling,  or  trying  to  crawl,  to  the  rear. 
Surely  something  did  happen  to  poor  Joe.  The  shell 
had  exploded  right  in  front  of  him,  and  his  body  was 
scattered  to  the  four  winds.  At  this  moment  the  order 
came  "  Forward  !"  and  we  advanced  upon  the  enemy  for 
still  closer  work.  I  have  told  the  story  :  Reader,  what 
•do  you  think  of  premonitions? 


Capt.  C.  D.  Copf. — After  the  incident  related  above, 
we  advanced  a  few  rods  down  into  a  ravine,  where  we 
were  ordered  to  lie  or  sit  down,  to  await  the  result  of  the 
fighting  in  our  front.  This  position  was  somewhat  under 
cover,  but  even  here  men  were  frequently  being  killed 
•or  wounded.  While  sitting  on  the  ground,  at  the  right 


384  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [May, 

of  my  company,  I  felt  an  impression  that  I  had  better 
move  out  of  that  place  at  once.  At  first  I  gave  it  but  lit 
tle  thought,  my  attention  being  attracted  to  others.  The 
impression  came  with  such  force,  however,  that  finally  I 
yielded  to  it,  and  without  rising  moved  a  little  to  the  left, 
apparently  in  no  safer  place,  but  simply  in  answer  to  the 
impression,  \vhich  I  had  so  strongly,  to  get  out  of  that 
particular  spot.  This  of  course  all  happened  in  less 
time  than  it  takes  to  read  it,  but  the  instant  I  moved  a 
bullet  came  full  force  and  struck  in  the  ground  where  I 
had  been  sitting,  and  which  would  doubtless  have  hit  me 
in  the  breast.  Can  you  tell  me  who  or  what  it  was  that 
told  me  to  move? 


Lieutenant  Mason. — Young  Parsons,  when  he  came 
to  be  mustered  in,  was  objected  to  by  the  mustering 
officer  as  being  both  too  small  and  too  young.  You 
know  what  a  pale-faced  youth  he  always  was,  and  he 
looked  as  though  he  was  n't  more  than  fourteen  years  old 
when  he  joined  our  regiment.  He  told  me,  while  I  was 
in  command  of  the  company,  that  he  .put  inside  of  his 
shoes  pieces  of  paper  with  the  figures  "  18  "  on  them, 
and  when  they  put  him  under  oath  as  to  his  age  he  swore 
that  he  was  "  over  eighteen."  In  my  letter  to  his  mother, 
when  he  was  killed  at  Petersburg  a  little  later  in  the 
season,  I  mentioned  this  fact.  His  mother  was  very 
poor,  and  later  on  applied  for  a  pension.  Imagine  my 
surprise,  when  one  day  an  examiner  in  the  pension  office 
came  into  the  room  where  I  was  at  work  with  that  iden 
tical  letter  in  his  hand.  He  brought  it  to  me,  and  said, 
"  Is  that  yours?  "  I  looked  at  it,  recognized  the  writing, 
and  answered  "Yes,  sir."  "Well,"  said  he,  "that 


1864.]         THE   WILDERNESS  AND  SPOTTSYLVANIA.  385 

will  pass  the  mother's  case  then."  This  same  Parsons 
was  the  man  who  helped  save  the  colors  at  Spottsylvania, 
who  was  promoted  to  be  color  sergeant  for  his  bravery, 
and  who  was  killed  while  carrying  the  colors  at  Peters 
burg,  July  20,  1864. 


Captain  Babb. — When  we  were  recruiting,  there  was 
a  young  man  who  had  n't  any  parents  who  desired  to  join 
the  regiment.  Eastman  would  n't  pass  him,  as  he  was  n't 
tall  enough,  and  the  poor  fellow  was  very  much  disap 
pointed.  I  told  Eastman  something  of  his  circumstances, 
and  he  said,  "  Well,  bring  him  in  again,  by  and  by,  and 
perhaps  he  will  pass,  for  sometimes  these  boys  grow 
very  fast."  Perhaps  somebody  gave  the  boy  a  "tip;" 
at  any  rate,  unknown  to  me,  he  put  something  under  his 
heels,  in  his  boots,  and  when  he  was  examined  the  next 
time  he  passed  all  right.  His  name  was  Roscoe  B.  Kid- 
der,  and  at  the  Battle  of  Spottsylvania  he  had  grown  to 
be  a  stout,  heavy  man.  When  the  rebels  swarmed  on 
us  that  morning,  Kidder  got  surrounded,  and  he  turned 
his  rifle  and  swung  it  round  like  a  wild  devil.  He  laid 
out  eight  or  ten  men,  and  got  off  himself  all  right. 


Sergeant  Dutton. — When  we  went  in  at  Spottsylva 
nia,  Sergt.  James  Prendable  carried  the  National  colors 
and  Corp.  Albert  R.  Wheeler  had  the  State  colors. 
There  was  also  a  full  complement  of  eight  guards.  Both 
flags  were  new  and  had  never  been  in  service,  but  after 
the  battle  the  National  colors  had  sixteen  shots  through 
them  by  actual  count,  and  only  one  color  bearer  and 
two  of  the  guard  came  out  untouched,  the  rest  being 


XXV 


86  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [May, 


wounded,  killed,  or  taken  prisoners.  It  was  a  close 
place.  There  was  a  dense  fog.  We  advanced  in  line 
with  the  regiment  until  we  found  ourselves  in  the  outer 
works  of  the  enemy  ;  had  just  halted  there,  when  up  out 
of  the  fog,  not  more  than  a  rod  or  two  distant,  loomed 
the  enemy.  They  came  up  in  splendid  alignment,  their 
guns  right  shoulder  shift ;  an  officer  directly  in  front  oi 
me  holding  a  pistol  out  toward  us  with  one  hand,  and 
keeping  his  men  in  line  with  the  other.  They  came  so 
near  we  could  see  the  white  of  their  eyes,  and  we  had 
only  time  to  fire  and  get  out  of  it  if  we  could.  It  was  a 
wonder  that  any  got  away.  When  Sergeant  Prendable 
fell,  wounded,  Captain  Copp  took  the  colors,  and  after 
wards  handed  them  to  Private  Edward  S.  Parsons,  of 
Company  D,  who  brought  them  off.  Corporal  Wheeler 
brought  off  the  State  colors  unharmed  after  the  battle. 
Corporal  Wheeler  resigned  his  position  as  bearer  of  State 
colors.  Parsons  was  promoted  to  be  sergeant  and  given 
the  National  colors,  and  I  was  given  the  State  colors, 
and  we  carried  them  until  the  explosion,  of  the  mine  at 
Petersburg. 

A  CLOSE  SHAVE. 

Corporal  Blood,  of  Company  E,  was  on  the  sick-list 
at  the  time  the  regiment  commenced  its  march  to  the 
North  Anna.  To  get  away  from  the  noise  of  the  regi 
ment,  the  last  evening  it  was  at  Spottsylvania,  Blood 
went  back  from  the  intrenched  line  which  the  men  held 
a  few  rods,  rolled  himself  up  in  his  blanket  on  the 
ground,  and  went  to  sleep.  The  regiment  moved  at  two 
o'clock  the  next  morning,  but  no  one  thought  of  Blood, 
because  he  was  off  duty  and  taking  care  of  himself,  and 


CAPT.  EDWARD  C.  BABB,  Co.  G. 


1864.]         THE   WILDERNESS  AND  SPOTTSYLVANIA.  387 

was  with  the  regiment  as  he  pleased.  He  slept  soundly 
until  after  sunrise,  and  awoke  with  the  sun  shining  in  his 
face  and  the  thought  that  everything  was  remarkably 
still.  Raising  his  head,  he  saw  that  our  troops  had  left 
the  pits  in  front,  and  then,  to  his  consternation,  that  a 
large  scattering  of  Confederate  soldiers  was  wandering 
around  in  the  woods  where  our  men  had  been,  and  were 
looking  over  the  .field.  Andersonville  appeared  to  Blood 
as  a  sure  thing  for  a  future  residence,  but  thinking  he 
would  make  the  best  of  it,  he  coolly  arose,  rolled  up  his 
blanket,  slung  it  with  his  other  traps  over  his  shoulder, 
picked  up  his  gun,  and  walked  with  a  careless  gait  to 
the  rear,  quickening  his  steps  as  he  got  farther  away. 
Fortunately  he  was  not  seen,  and  soon  came  up  with 
the  regiment,  about  five  miles  to  the  left,  where  it  had 
stopped.  Corporal  Blood  was  a  brave  and  efficient  sol 
dier.  He  received  wounds  September  30,  1864,  at  Pop 
lar  Grove  church,  from  which  he  died  in  the  hospital  at 
Beverly,  N.  J.,  November  8th,  following. 

THE  CAPTURE  OF  LIEUTENANT  WILCOX. 

"  As  we  went  into  the  fight,  after  passing  the  picket  line , 
we  went  over  the  hill  and  into  the  hollow.  There  we 
stopped,  and  were  ordered  to  continue  firing  as  fast  as 
possible.  While  we  lay  there  one  of  the  men  was  shot 
through  the  neck,  and  I  remember  the  blood  spurted  out 
like  a  rainbow.  Just  then  another  man  near  me  was 
wounded  in  the  arm,  and  the  blood  spurted  out  in  the 
same  way.  I  did  n't  have  a  tourniquet,  but  by  chance  I 
had  a  piece  of  tent  rope  in  my  pocket,  and  I  tied  that 
around  his  arm  and  then  told  him  to  go  to  the  rear.  I 
had  n't  paid  much  attention  to  what  was  going  on  around 


388  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [May, 

me,  but  all  at  once  some  one  shouted,  'Look  out,  the 
regiment  is  retreating!'  Then  I  looked  up,  and  sure 
enough  the  left  of  the  regiment  was  making  for  the  rear, 
and  I  concluded  it  was  time  for  me  to  be  moving.  I  had 
not  got  two  rods  away  before  I  was  surrounded  by  a  half 
dozen  rebels,  who  demanded  my  surrender.  A  few  nights 
before  this  some  of  the  officers  had  been  talking  about 
being  captured,  and  the  suffering  that  would  have  to  be 
endured  in  prison,  and  we  had  decided  that  we  would  n't 
be  captured.  That  all  went  through  my  mind  in  a 
moment,  but  I  did  n't  see  how  I  could  help  myself,  and 
so  surrendered." 

DEATH  OF  CAPTAIN  STONE. 

Captain  Babb. — As  soon  as  I  learned  that  Captain 
Stone  had  been  wounded,  I  went  back  to  General  Griffin 
and  asked  permission  to  hunt  him  up  and  see  howr  badly 
he  was  hurt.  It  had  been  reported  that  he  was  mortally 
wounded,  but  the  general  said  he  didn't  think  he  was, 
though  he  finally  gave  me  permission  to  go.  When  at 
last  I  found  him,  he  had  been  taken  quite  a  distance  to 
the  rear.  I  sat  with  him  about  two  hours,  and  talked 
with  him  for  some  time  in  regard  to  his  wound,  which 
was  in  the  upper  part  of  the  thigh,  near  the  abdomen, 
and  had  been  made  by  a  flying  shell.  He  was  very 
bright  until,  knowing  myself  that  he  was  mortally 
wounded,  I  said,  "  Captain,  you  will  probably  go  home 
now,  and  I  wish  you  would  go  and  see  my  family  and 
tell  them  I  am  all  right."  He  weakened  then  for  the 
first  time.  "Lieutenant,"  said  he,  "I  never  shall  see 
home.  This  thing  will  wind  me  up,  and  pretty  soon 
too."  He  lived  only  one  day  after  that. 


CAPT.  ANDREW  J.  STONE,  Co.  F. 


1864.]         THE   WILDERNESS  AND  SPOTTSYLVANIA.  389 

Hermon  A.  Clement. — It  was  on  the  i8th  of  May  that 
Capt.  A.  J.  Stone,  of  Company  F,  while  leading  the  regi 
ment,  was  struck  in  the  groin  with  a  piece  of  shell,  a 
wound  from  which  he  died,  on  the  2Oth,  in  Fredericks- 
burg.  Right  here  I  wish  to  say  that  so.on  after  he  was 
wounded  he  was  taken  from  the  field  and  carried  to  the 
field  hospital,  where  I  found  him  after  about  an  hour's 
search.  His  wound  had  been  dressed,  and  he  was  lying 
in  a  tent.  The  moment  he  saw  me  he  said,  ''Clem, 
how  is  the  fight  going?  Were  there  many  of  my  men 
killed?"  He  seemed  at  all  times  to  have  his  reason,  but 
oh,  how  he  did  suffer  with  pain  all  that  night !  Every 
few  minutes  he  would  want  me  to  try  and  turn  him  one  way 
or  another ;  but  as  soon  as  I  stirred  him  the  least  mite  he 
would  say,  "Oh,  I  can't  stand  it!"  The  next  day  he 
was  taken  to  Fredericksburg.  The  hospital  was  so  full 
that  I  was  obliged  to  lay  him  on  a  mattress  on  the  floor, 
but  I  knew  he  would  not  be  there  long,  for  his  hip  and 
legs  began  to  turn  black  as  soon  as  we  arrived  there, 
and  he  suffered  the  most  intense  pain  until  he  died,  about 
eight  o'clock  in  the  evening.  I  dug  his  grave  alone, 
and  oh,  how  hard  the  ground  was,  and  how  hard  it 
seemed  to  have  to  lay  him  in  the  ground  wrapped  in  a 
blanket !  And  to  think  I  should  have  it  to  do,  for  I  loved 
him  so  much — he  was  always  so  kind  to  my  poor  brother 
Simeon  and  myself;  in  fact,  to  every  one,  bless  his  mem 
ory  !  I,  for  one,  shall  never  forget  him. 


Captain  Co-pj). — One  of  the  wounded  that  were  left 
on  the  field  was  Edward  P.  Chapman,  of  Company  F. 
He  told  me  that  after  we  were  repulsed  the  rebels  rushed 
right  over  him  as  he  lay  on  the  ground.  Afterwards, 


390  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [May, 

one  of  them — a  straggler,  apparently — came  along  where 
he  was,  and  pulled  off  his  boots  and  some  of  his  clothing, 
and  rifled  his  pockets,  and  he  let  him  do  it  without  any 
resistance  whatever ;  but  the  fellow,  after  he  found  out 
that  Chapman  wras  alive,  stood  up,  took  aim,  and  delib 
erately  shot  him  through  the  jaw.  Supposing  that  he 
was  surely  dead  this  time,  the  fellow  went  on  and  left 
him.  Chapman  was  brought  from  the  field  as  one  of  the 
wounded,  and  is  still  living,  though  part  of  his  jaw  is 
gone. 


PLAYING    'POSSUM. 
By  Sergeant  Burnham. 

It  happened  that  about  the  time  the  regiment  broke, 
one  of  our  company,  a  young  Englishman  by  the 
name  of  Triggs,  had  his  trousers  cut,  and  his  thigh 
grazed,  by  a  Minie  ball.  It  stung  at  first  nearly  as 
much  as  though  it  had  gone  through  his  leg.  As  is  not 
uncommon  in  such  cases,  he  thought  himself  much  worse 
hurt  than  he  really  was,  and  dropping  down  where  he 
would  be  partially  sheltered  by  stumps  and  brush,  with 
which  the  field  was  thickly  strewn,  he  lay  there,  suppos 
ing  for  a  time  that  he  was  seriously  wounded.  In  a  few 
minutes  the  Johnnies  rushed  past  him  in  pursuit  of  us, 
and  some  of  them,  noticing  Triggs  and  thinking  from 
his  looks  that  he  wras  still  able  to  travel,  got  him  to  his 
feet  and  tried  to  start  him  to  the  rear  as  their  prisoner. 
He  protested  that  he  was  wounded  and  could  not  go,  but 
they  thought  differently  and  made  him  start.  Said  he 
afterwards,  in  telling  the  story,  "  About  that  time  I 
thought  my  chance  of  getting  into  Richmond  was 
exceedingly  good." 


1864.]  THE  WILDERNESS  AA?D  SPOTTSYLVANIA.  391 

Certainly  it  did  look  that  way,  but  a  lucky  accident 
came  to  his  relief.  At  almost  the  first  step  he  tripped  on 
a  root  or  stick  of  some  sort,  and  tumbled  head-first  into  a 
heap  of  brush.  His  captors,  who  were  beginning  to 
find  the  place  rather  a  warm  one  for  themselves,  thought 
surely  he  was  used  up,  and  "  skedaddled"  without  wait 
ing  for  him.  At  first  Triggs  was  inclined  to  laugh  at 
the  'possum  game  he  had  almost  unwittingly  played,  but 
he  soon  found  he  was  not  yet  out  of  the  scrape.  There 
he  was  between  two — yes,  a  half  dozen — fires,  and  the 
bullets,  shells,  and  canister  were  flying  in  a  perfect 
storm  over  him,  often  striking  uncomfortably  close.  He 
had  no  idea  in  which  direction  to  go  in  order  to  find 
friends ;  in  fact,  the  only  thing  he  could  do  was  to  crawl 
into  the  most  sheltered  spot  at  hand  and  hug  the  ground. 
This  he  did,  and  remained  in  his  hiding-place  till  the 
next  morning,  when  he  caught  sight  of  our  skirmishers, 
attracted  their  attention,  managed  to  get  to  them 
unharmed,  and  soon  afterwards  found  and  rejoined  us. 
He  thought  this,  his  first  lesson  in  the  fighting  art,  a 
pretty  tough  one,  but  was  by  no  means  discouraged,  and 
in  time  became  one  of  the  best  soldiers  in  the  company. 


Sergeant  Burnham. — Robinson,  Case,  and  I  were 
of  the  searching  party  that  went  out  after  the  dead  and 
wounded.  We  had  got  most  of  the  bodies,  and  had 
wandered  some  distance  to  the  right  of  where  we  had 
passed  through  the  skirmish  line,  when  suddenly  we 
heard  the  click  of  rifle-locks  just  in  front  of  us,  and  an 
ominous  voice  ordered  "  Halt !"  We  lost  no  time  in 
obeying,  and  I,  who  was  unarmed,  advanced  open- 
handed  to  the  skirmish  or  picket  post,  which  wras  behind 


392  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [May, 

some  logs,  and  over  the  muzzle  of  a  rifle  explained  who 
we  were,  and  then  we  were  allowed  to  retire.  These 
men  had  not  been  notified  of  our  mission,  and  it  is  a  won 
der  that  they  did  not  fire  on  us  without  a  word  of  warn 
ing,  while  in  the  opposite  direction  we  must  have  got 
pretty  near  the  rebel  pickets.  They  tried  to  draw  us  on 
by  imitating  the  groans  of  the  wounded,  and  when  we 
failed  to  respond  gave  us  the  compliment  of  a  fusillade 
from  their  muskets. 


SERGEANT    BURNHAM'S    SPECIAL   DETAIL. 

"When  Grant  made  his  flank  movement  from  Spottsyl- 
vania  to  the  North  Anna,  our  division  got  under  way 
near  the  middle  of  the  afternoon.  We  led  the  corps  that 
day,  and  took,  or  started  to  take,  a  different  and  shorter 
route  than  that  of  the  Second  and  Fifth  corps,  who  had 
started  the  night  before.  We  moved  out  four  or  five 
miles,  struck  the  telegraph  pike  from  Fredericksburg  to 
Richmond,  and  had  turned  southward  on  this,  when 
from  the  opposite  bank  of  a  creek — one  of  the  branches 
of  the  Mattapony — a  battery  suddenly  opened  on  our 
advance.  This  brought  us  to  a  sudden  halt,  and  a  part 
of  the  division  was  deployed  in  the  fields  and  a  recon- 
noissance  made. 

"The  result  was  the  decision  to  turn  north  on  the  pike, 
cross  another  creek  about  a  mile  distant,  and  take  the 
route  the  other  corps  had  pursued.  We  had  large  trains 
in  convoy,  were  in  a  hurry,  and  this  appeared  the  short 
est  and  surest  way  I  suppose  ;  but  presently  another  dif 
ficulty  presented  itself.  The  bridge  across  the  creek  I 
have  mentioned  was  guarded  by  a  body  of  Pennsylvania 
cavalry,  who,  it  seems,  had  not  the  slightest  idea  that 


1864.]          THE    WILDERNESS  AND  SPOTTSYLVANIA.  393 

any  Federal  troops  were  on  the  south  side  of  the  stream, 
and  persisted  in  firing  on  everything  approaching  them 
from  that  direction.  General  Potter  sent  out  two  or  three 
of  his  staff  to  communicate  with  them,  but  they  came 
back  unsuccessful,  and  I  suppose  did  not  like  to  try 
again.  At  any  rate  his  adjutant-general  came  to  Gen 
eral  Griffin,  saying  he  must  have  a  sergeant  who  could 
be  trusted  with  a  despatch  to  the  commander  of  the  cav 
alry,  and  that  he  must  get  it  to  him  in  some  way. 

"Our  regiment  chanced  to  be  the  first  at  hand,  and 
General  Griffin  called  at  once  on  Adjutant  Brown  for  a 
detail.  He,  for  reasons  best  known  to  himself,  came 
immediately  to  me,  and  said  General  Griffin  wanted  me 
a  few  minutes,  and  ordered  a  man  from  another  com 
pany  to  go  with  me.  I  reported,  as  directed,  to  General 
Griffin,  and  to  my  surprise  the  adjutant-general  I  have 
mentioned  handed  me  a  pencilled  note,  told  me  where 
he  wished  it  carried,  and  explained  the  situation,  but  so 
bunglingly  that  he  made  me  understand  that  the  cav 
alry  I  was  to  find  was  on  the  same  side  of  the  stream  as 
ourselves. 

"I  felt  a  good  deal  like  telling  him  that  if  he  had  not 
orderlies  and  bummers  enough  to  do  his  running  for  him, 
without  taking  a  poor  fellow  that  carried  a  knapsack,  it 
was  my  private  humble  opinion  he  had  better  have  a 
dozen  or  two  more  detailed.  Concluding  from  his  looks, 
however,  that  the  less  I  said  the  better  it  would  be  for 
me,  and  that  it  would  not  look  very  well  to  back  out,  I 
started  off.  It  took  but  a  few  minutes  to  walk  a  mile  on 
a  straight  road  and  find  the  bridge.  Not  a  human 
being,  as  far  as  I  could  discover,  was  within  hearing  of 
it.  I  examined  the  bridge,  and  found  the  planks  had 
been  torn  up,  but  crossing  over  on  one  of  the  sleepers  I 


394  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [May, 

looked  carefully  around,  and  in  the  dim  light  of  the 
evening — it  was  about  nine  o'clock — could  see  no  one, 
although  within  twenty  feet  of  the  men  I  was  searching 
for.  They  kept  perfectly  quiet,  and  I  could  not  hear  a 
sound  ;  nor  did  they  challenge  me,  which  was  what  I  was 
expecting  in  case  there  was  any  one  near  the  bridge  and 
on  guard. 

"Puzzled  completely,  I  recrossed  the  bridge,  coun 
selled  with  the  man  who  had  kept  me  company,  and 
we  concluded  to  go  back  to  General  Griffin.  Accordingly 
we  started ;  when  without  a  word  the  Dutch  blunder 
heads,  who  were  in  the  shadow  of  some  trees  just  on  the 
other  bank  and  had  seen  me  cross  and  recross  the  bridge, 
opened  fire  with  their  seven-shooters,  and  the  way  they 
sprinkled  the  bullets  around  us  was  a  caution.  It  was 
one  of  the  liveliest  serenades  of  that  sort  that  I  have  ever 
experienced,  and  there  was  no  doubt  about  who  it  was 
intended  for,  either.  We  sprang  into  the  ditch  beside 
the  road,  where  we  were  partially  sheltered,  and  got  out 
of  range  as  soon  as  possible. 

"From  their  being  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  stream 
from  what  I  had  expected,  and  their  not  challenging  me, 
I  more  than  suspected  that  they  were  rebels,  and  lost  no 
time  in  reporting  to  General  Griffin.  '  Why,'  said  he, 
*  those  are  the  very  chaps  you  want ;  you  must  get  that 
despatch  to  them  ;  the  whole  column  is  waiting  for  you. 
Hurry  up  ! '  I  expressed  my  willingness  to  try  it  again, 
and  hastening  back  to  the  company  left  my  knapsack, 
got  another  man  to  go  with  me, — the  first  being  too 
thoroughly  scared  to  want  to  try  it  again — and  started 
once  more. 

"On  arriving  at  the  bridge,  I  found  they  by  some 
means  had  learned  who  we  were,  and  had  set  to  work  to 


1864.]  THE   WILDERNESS  AND  SPOTTSYLVANIA.  395 

replace  the  planks  on  the  bridge.  Of  course  I  had  no 
difficulty  now  in  delivering  my  despatch.  A  consul 
tation  between  the  cavalry  commander  and  General 
Griffin  followed,  and  by  the  time  the  bridge  was  repaired 
the  head  of  the  column  was  ready  to  cross  it,  and  a  rapid 
and  all-night  march  was  begun.  This  was  my  first  job 
of  the  kind,  and  not  only  had  it  been  a  <  ticklish '  piece 
of  work,  but  the  extra  travel  involved,  coupled  with 
the  hard  march  that  followed,  made  twelve  hours  of 
work  that  was  near  proving  too  much  fpr  me.  I  think  I 
never  was  so  tired  in  my  life  as  when  we  halted  for 
breakfast  the  next  morning." 


Sergeant  Burnham. — That  morning  at  Spottsylvania, 
when  the  regiment  broke  and  started  for  the  ridge,  I 
went  along  with  the  rest,  for  I  had  no  mind  to  be  cap 
tured  if  my  legs  would  save  me.  I  had  gone  only  a 
little  way  when  I  came  against  a  fallen  tree-top,  seem 
ingly  too  high  to  leap.  Glancing  back,  I  saw  that  just 
behind  me,  and  to  the  right  also,  the  rebels  were  coming 
on.  One  of  them,  who  was  a  little  in  advance  of  the 
rest,  levelled  his  rifle  and  yelled,  "  Halt,  you  d — d 
Yank  !  "  There  was  no  time  to  run  around  that  tree-top, 
or  even  to  deliberate  upon  the  situation. 

I  was  loaded  down  with  knapsack,  haversack,  can 
teen,  rifle,  and  accoutrements,  all  on  over  my  overcoat, 
which  was  wet  and  heavy  from  the  rain,  but  I  made  the 
"  greatest  effort  of  my  life," — in  the  jumping  line  at 
least — and  put  myself  the  other  side  of  that  tree-top  ;  not, 
however,  without  catching  my  foot  in  the  topmost  branch, 
causing  me  to  light  on  all  fours  and  to  plant  my  rifle 
muzzle  down  in  the  soft  ground.  The  Johnny  who  had 
ordered  me  to  halt  sent  his  compliments — apparently  a 


396  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [May, 

ball  and  buckshot — through  my  coat-tail ;  at  least  I  cred 
ited  him  with  the  hole  I  afterwards  discovered  in  the  gar 
ment. 

Some  comrades  who  were  just  at  my  left  when  we 
started  had  passed  around  the  tree,  and  as  I  sprawled 
on  the  .ground  I  heard  one  of  them  exclaim,  "  Burnham 
is  hit !  "  "  Not  yet !  "  I  snarled,  as  I  righted  myself  and 
snatched  my  rifle  from  where  it  had  stuck  in  the  mud. 
Then  I  made  the  best  possible  time  towards  the  crest  of 
the  little  ridge  just  in  the  edge  of  the  timber,  where  we 
had  changed  our  front  in  our  impetuous  advance,  and 
towards  which  our  broken  line  was  rushing  back  as  the 
first  possible  place  at  which  to  reform  and  make  a  stand. 
I  was  tempted  at  first  to  leave  my  rifle  sticking  where  it 
was,  but  only  for  an  instant.  "  That  gun  is  going  as 
far  as  I  go  !  "  was  the  determination  that  I  came  to, 
though  it  was  only  serviceable  after  being  cleared  of 
about  a  pint  of  moist  earth.  Another  thought  that 
flashed  through  my  mind  was  to  throw  off  my  knapsack, 
but  this  was  immediately  followed  by  the  reflection  that  it 
covered  and  partially  protected  quite  a  portion  of  my 
exposed  rear,  and  I  concluded  to  hang  onto  the  knapsack. 

Although  I  was  the  youngest  sergeant  in  the  company, 
I  was  that  morning  assisting  Lieutenant  Robinson,  who 
was  in  command  of  the  company,  by  doing  the  work  of 
a  lieutenant,  and  during  the  fight  when  we  first  met  the 
rebel  column,  I  had  all  I  could  do  to  keep  some  of  our 
recruits,  who  were  having  their  first  baptism  of  fire,  in 
their  places  and  to  their  proper  work  of  discharging 
their  muskets — somewhere  near,  at  least — in  the  right 
direction.  One  man — one  of  our  original  number,  I 
am  sorry  to  say — I  made  it  my  especial  duty  to  keep 
in  his  place  that  morning.  He  tried  all  sorts  of  excuses 


1864.]  THE   WILDERNESS  AND  SPOTTSYLVANIA.  397 

for  getting  out  of  the  ranks,  but  I  kept  right  behind 
him,  and  made  him  go  as  far  as  anybody  went;  at  the 
expense,  however,  of  a  good  many  threats  and  sundry 
prickings  of  the  bayonet.  It  was  the  first  and  only  time 
he  was  ever  got  fairly  under  fire. 


Sergeant  Burnham. — Among  the  wounded  that  our 
searching  party  brought  off  the  first  night  we  went  out, 
was  my  friend  Tracy,  who  had  lain  on  the  field  some 
forty  hours  with  one  leg  broken  and  shattered  below  the 
knee  by  a  Minie  ball.  The  next  morning  I  cooked  and 
carried  to  him  as  good  a  breakfast  as  I  could  command, 
and  had  quite  a  chat  with  him  about  his  experience  be 
tween  the  time  he  was  wounded  and  our  finding  him. 
He  told  me  that  the  rebels,  when  they  passed  over  the 
ground,  took  off  as  prisoners  such  wounded  as  could 
walk,  but  seeing  that  he  could  not,  they  left  him  undis 
turbed.  One  of  them,  more  humane  than  the  rest, 
threw  him  a  canteen  of  water  that  had  been  dropped 
near  by,  and  without  which  he  must  have  suffered 
greatly  from  thirst.  He  was  on  rather  low  ground,  and 
though  a  perfect  storm  of  bullets  passed  just  above  him 
all  day  Thursday,  and  he  was  momentarily  expecting 
to  be  struck,  he  had  escaped  further  injury.  He  was 
quite  bright  and  cheerful  that  morning,  and  seemed  to 
have  considerable  strength,  considering  how  much  of  a 
strain  he  had  undergone  in  his  long  and  dangerous 
exposure.  About  noon  he  was  taken  to  the  rear  to  a 
hospital,  where  his  leg  was  amputated.  The  surgeon 
was  hopeful  that  he  could  save  him  at  first,  but  erysipe 
las  set  in  after  the  amputation,  and  in  a  few  days  he 
died,  one  of  the  best  men  and  Christians  I  ever  knew. 


398  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [May, 

Sergt.  N.  T.  Dutton. — Sergeant  Tracy  died  in 
Washington,  June  6,  1864,  about  four  o'clock  in  the 
afternoon  of  the  day  he  reached  there.  By  some 
means,  at  the  landing  in  the  morning,  he  was  sepa 
rated  from  the  wounded  of  his  own  division  and  car 
ried  with  other  wounded  to  another  hospital.  His  wife, 
who  had  been  notified  of  his  wounds,  reached  Wash 
ington  the  same  morning,  but  not  finding  him  in  his 
proper  place,  went  from  hospital  to  hospital  all  day 
long,  and  only  found  his  body  about  an  hour  after  he 
had  died.  The  stroke  was  too  hard.  She  took  the 
body  with  her  to  New  Hampshire  for  burial,  soon  began 
to  fade  away,  and  in  the  next  fall  died,  and  was  laid 
beside  her  husband,  her  life  as  much  a  sacrifice  for 
country  as  his.  Inseparable  in  love  and  devotion  for 
each  other,  they  were  likewise  for  their  country,  and 
"  in  death  were  not  divided." 


Sergt.  N.  T.  Dutton. — Corporal  Elmer  Bragg,  of 
Company  E,  was  wounded  in  the  head,  the  ball  lodg 
ing  just  under  the  skin  near  the  temple.  He  was  taken 
prisoner  at  Spottsylvania,  and  was  carried  to  Belle  Isle 
near  Richmond,  where  he  remained,  with  his  wound 
undressed  and  the  ball  unremoved,  until  August,  1864, 
when  he  was  exchanged  and  taken  to  Annapolis,  Md. 
From  lack  of  attention  to  his  wound,  and  starvation 
rations,  he  became  very  much  emaciated,  and  reached 
the  hospital  there  more  dead  than  alive.  His  father 
came  on  to  see  him  and  take  him  home.  At  sight  of 
him  Bragg  rallied,  and  seemed  much  better.  The 
father's  business  demanded  his  immediate  attention, 
and  leaving  his  son  to  gain  strength  for  the  journey  he 
returned  home.  Corporal  Bragg  did  not  live  to  reach 


1864.]          THE   WILDERNESS  AND  SPOTTSYLVANIA.  399 

the  home  and  friends  he  so  dearly  loved,  for  that  very 
night  a  reaction  set  in  and  he  died.  His  case  is  illus 
trative  of  thousands  of  others.  Corporal  Bragg  was 
pursuing  his  studies  at  Kimball  Union  academy,  Meri- 
den,  N.  H.,  when  he  enlisted.  He  was  a  most  sturdy 
and  faithful  young  man  and  Christian.  He  was  always 
cheerful  and  ready  in  his  duty,  and  patient  under  the- 
great  burdens  of  service  and  suffering.  In  his  diary, 
which  he  kept  while  at  Belle  Isle,  he  daily  described 
his  rations — a  small  piece  of  corn-bread,  an  inch  or  two 
square,  a  morsel  of  meat  or  a  trifle  of  samp,  which 
only  served  to  prolong  his  suffering  and  starvation ; 
yet  he  often  closed  the  day's  record  with  these  words, — 
"  How  thankful  I  ought  to  be  to  God  for  all  his  good- 


A    FEW   STRAY   SHOTS. 

Soon  after  the  regiment  entered  the  slashed  timber 
General  Griffin  sent  one  of  his  aids,  Lieutenant  Bur- 
bank,  to  Major  Chandler,  with  an  order  for  the  regi 
ment  to  come  back ;  but  they  were  under  full  headway 
on  the  charge,  and  what  with  the  confusion,  the  yelling, 
the  bursting  of  shells,  and  all,  the  order  failed  to  reach 
them,  and  they  kept  on  their  way.  When  this  fact  was- 
reported  by  the  orderly  to  General  Griffin,  the  general 
remarked,  "If  they  have  gone  in  there,  you  can  say 
good-bye  to  the  Ninth  New  Hampshire." 


As  the  regiment  was  making  ready  for  the  advance,  a 
man  came  along,  without  any  gun  or  equipments,  and 
took  his  place  in  the  company  to  which  he  belonged. 
The  commanding  officer  said  to  him,  "What  are  you. 


400  NINTH  NE  W  HAMPSHIRE.  [May, 

here  for  without  any  arms?"  "Oh,  never  mind,"  said 
the  soldier,  "some  of  these  fellows  will  be  dead  pretty 
soon,  and  then  I  can  have  all  I  want!"  He  soon 
equipped  himself. 

Another  man,  who  was  in  the  rear  rank,  was  troubled 
a  good  deal  by  a  front  rank  man  not  keeping  up.  After 
pushing  against  the  fellow  several  times,  he  finally 
seized  him  by  the  shoulder  and  said,  "You  get  into 
the  rear  rank  and  let  me  step  into  the  front!"  He  had 
hardly  got  into  place  when  he  was  shot. 


For  close  shaves,  Provencher,  of  Company  E,  and 
Plummer,  of  Company  B,  can  divide  the  honors.  Pro 
vencher  had  the  visor  of  his  cap  and  the  back  of  his 
blouse  shot  clean  off,  without  getting  a  scratch  himself, 
while  Plummer  had  his  cartridge  box  blown  to  flinders 
and  every  cartridge  destroyed.  Both  men  were  pretty 
thoroughly  shaken  up  by  their  adventures,  and  they 
were  really  remarkably  narrow  chances. 


CORPORAL   MAYO'S    EXPLOIT. 

To  begin  with,  when  the  regiment  was  getting  ready 
to  go  in,  on  that  foggy,  drizzly  morning  of  the  I2th,  at 
Spottsylvania,  Lieutenant  Robinson,  who  was  com 
manding  the  company  then,  told  me  I  had  better  remain 
where  I  was  and  not  go  in.  I  had,  at  that  time,  been 
prostrated  with  fever  and  ague  for  several  days,  but  I 
told  him  I  guessed  I  would  keep  along  with  them  the 
best  I  could.  As  the  regiment  went  over  the  ridge  it 


CORP.  LYSANDKR  R.  MAYO,  Co.  E.  NATHAN  GUSHING,  Co.  E. 


BENJAMIN  GRAY,  Co.  E. 


JAMES  C.  AVER,  Co.  E. 


1864.]          THE   WILDERNESS  AND  SPOTTSYLVANIA.     .        401 

went  to  the  left,  in  order  to  make  connections,  leaving 
quite  a  gap  between  our  corps  and  the  Second.  I  went 
over  the  ridge  to  the  ravine  where  the  brook  was,  and 
all  at  once  I  heard  some  one  sing  out,  "Drop  that 
gun!"  and  looking  up  I  saw  two  Johnnies,  with  a 
wounded  prisoner  between  them  ;  but  they  both  had 
their  guns  drawn  on  me,  so  I  dropped  mine  according 
to  orders,  for  it  was  n't  the  time  or  place  to  argue  on  the 
question. 

They  started  off  with  us,  to  go  back  to  their  regiment,  as 
they  supposed,  sending  me  on  ahead,  with  the  wounded 
man,  who  was  a  Dutchman,  following  on  behind.  I 
kept  bearing  to  the  right  until  we  got  to  the  road  that 
came  out  behind  the  Second  corps,  but  when  I  got  in 
sight  of  that,  and  saw  the  straggling  blue-coats  coming 
in  from  all  directions,  I  wheeled  around  and  said,  "Do 
you  know  where  you  are?  "  Considerably  startled  by  the 
question,  after  a  hasty  glance  around  they  confessed 
that  they  did  not  "  exactly."  "Well,"  said  I,  "I  do, 
and  I'll  tell  you.  You're  inside  our  lines  now,  my 
boys,  and  the  quicker  you  hand  over  those  guns  the 
better,  for  if  our  boys  get  sight  of  you  here  you'll  get  a 
bullet  before  you  have  time  to  throw  them  down  !" 

They  got  down  in  a  little  hollow,  and  kept  their  guns 
drawn  on  me  for  a  few  minutes,  but  finally  one  of  them 
said,  "  Where '11  they  carry  us  if  we  surrender?"  "I 
don't  know,"  said  I,  "but  I  suppose  to  Point  Lucock." 
Then  one  of  them  threw  his  gun  down,  and  the  other 
reversed  his  and  handed  it  to  me.  1  took  the  gun,  and 
then  knocked  the  cap  off  and  put  on  a  new  one. 
"What  are  you  doing  that  for?"  said  he,  "  the  gun  is 
all  right!"  "  Well,"  said  I,  "I  just  wanted  to  be  sure 
there  was  a  fresh  cap  on."  I  started  the  Johnnies 

XXVI 


4O2  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [May, 

ahead,  and  told  them  which  way  to  go,  but  they  kept 
begging,  "  Oh,  for  God's  sake  don't  take  us  up  to  the 
front!"  "You  keep  still,"  said  I ;  "I  rather  guess  I 
know  my  way  out  of  this." 

The  first  thing  that  fetched  me  up  was  when  I  got  to 
where  General  Burnside  and  his  staff  were.  One  of  the 
aids  came  up  to  me,  and  I  asked  him  where  to  take  my 
prisoners,  and  he  told  me.  We  had  to  go  back  on  the 
hill,  and  when  I  got  them  there  and  turned  them  over  to 
the  officer  of  the  day,  I  said  to  him,  "I  captured  these 
two  men  alone,  after  they  had  travelled  me  around  in 
the  woods  for  a  while,  and  I  want  something  to  show 
for  it."  He  asked  me  what  my  name  was,  and  I  told 
him  ;  and  then  he  stepped  into  the  marshal's  office,  and 
wrote  me  a  receipt  for  two  prisoners  of  war,  which  I 
still  have  in  my  possession. 


The  following  is  a  copy  of  the  receipt  given  to    the 
plucky  Yankee  corporal : 

PROV.  MARSHAL  QTH  A.  CORPS. 

Received  of  Corporal  Mayo,  of  the  Qth  N.  Hamps.,  2  (two)  prisoners 
of  war. 

NEAR  SPOTTSYLVANIA  COURT-HOUSE,  May  i2th,  1864. 

G.  H.  AIKEN, 

Lt.  Wi  Infantry, 
Officer  of  the  day. 


SKRGT.  CHARLES  S.  STEVENS. 


CHAPTER    XII. 
FROM  THE  NORTH  ANNA  TO  PETERSBURG. 

When    the   Army   of  the   Potomac   struck    the   North 
Anna,  on   the   afternoon  of  May  23,  it  found    its  wary 
opponent  securely  intrenched    on    the    opposite   side   of 
the  river,   ready  to   dispute  its   passage.     The  enemy's 
widely  diverging  lines,  reaching  back  from  two  to  three 
miles,  formed  a  salient  just  across  from  the  point  where 
the  commander  of  the  Ninth  corps  had  brought  his  forces 
to  a  halt.     It  was  apparent  that  an  attempt  to  cross  at 
Ox  ford  must  be  attended  with  serious  and  useless  loss 
of  life.     Accordingly  the   corps  was   divided,  the  First 
division  being   dispatched  to  the  aid  of  Warren,  who, 
holding  the  right  of  the  line,  had  succeeded  in  making 
a  crossing  at  Jericho  ford,  where  the  enemy,  at  first  in 
slender  force,  but  soon   re-enforced  by  six  brigades   of 
Hill's  corps,  attacked  and  was  driven  back  with  heavy 
loss,    enabling    Warren    to    establish    and    intrench    his 
lines;  the  Second  division  to  the  assistance  of  Hancock, 
who,   striking  the  river   at  Chesterfield   bridge,  a   mile 
above  the  Fredericksburg  railroad,   was  confronted  by 
McLaws's  division  of  Longstreet's  corps,  but  attacking, 
had    carried    the    bridge    by   six    in    the    afternoon,   the 
enemy,  after  repeated  efforts  to  burn  the  bridge  during 
the    night,    retreating    and    leaving    the   way    clear    for 
Hancock  to  cross  in  the  morning  of  the  24th  ;  while  the 
Third  division  was  retained  in  the  rear  of  the  ford,  and 


404  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [May, 

succeeded  in  seizing  and  holding  a  small  island  in  the 
river  on  the  following  day. 

The  army  had  crossed  the  river  with  but  small  loss, 
but  the  game  was  by  no  means  won,  and  the  longer 
General  Grant  studied  the  ground  the  stronger  became 
his  conviction  that  Lee's  position  was  practically  invul 
nerable,  and  only  to  be  wrested  from  him  at  a  frightful 
sacrifice.  Deliberate  and  careful  reconnoissances  were 
made  during  the  25th  and  26th,  but  there  was  no  encoun 
ter  of  the  forces  except  a  brush  which  occurred  in  the 
afternoon  of  the  latter  date,  when  the  Second  division 
of  the  Ninth  corps  drove  back  the  enemy's  entire  front 
and  advanced  its  own  line  to  a  highly  favorable  posi 
tion.  That  night  the  army  cautiously  withdrew  from 
the  enemy's  front,  crossed  the  river,  and,  bearing  first 
to  the  east  and  then  to  the  south,  took  the  road  to  Rich 
mond,  the  Sixth  corps  having  the  advance,  and  being 
followed  by  the  Fifth,  Ninth,  and  Second.  The  morn 
ing  of  the  29th  found  the  whole  army  south  of  the 
Pamunkey,  and  in  close  communication  with  its  new 
base  at  White  House. 

This  move  had  been  made  in  accordance  with  General 
Grant's  determination  to  again  attempt  to  turn  Lee's 
right  flank,  and  by  crossing  the  Pamunkey  the  approach 
to  Richmond  was  considerably  shortened  by  a  move 
ment  across  Tolopotomoy  creek,  by  way  of  Cold  Harbor 
and  Bethesda  church.  Lee,  on  the  watch  and  having 
the  usual  advantage  of  a  shorter  road,  was  already  in 
position  on  the  new  front,  his  army,  across  Tolopoto 
moy  creek,  with  its  right  on  Mechanicsville  pike,  near 
Bethesda  church,  covering  both  railroads  as  well  as  the 
road  to  Richmond.  The  Ninth  corps  crossed  the  creek 
on  the  3Oth,  establishing  itself  after  some  particularly. 


1864.]        FROM  THE  NORTH  ANNA   TO  PETERSBURG.          405 

sharp  skirmishing,  more  especially  in  front  of  the  Second 
division  ;  the  whole  line,  on  the  following  day,  being 
moved  forward  quite  a  distance. 

The  advance  was  made  late  in  the  afternoon,  the 
troops  crossing  an  open  field  with  great  spirit  in  face 
of  a  heavy  fire,  carrying  the  larger  part  of  the  enemy's 
front  line  of  rifle-pits,  and  taking  about  six  hundred 
prisoners.  The  Confederate  forces,  now  thoroughly 
aroused,  defended  the  second  line  with  such  stubborn 
resistance  that  further  advance  was  impossible,  and 
though  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  bivouacked  that  night 
on  advanced  ground,  it  was  at  the  cost  of  more  than 
2,000  killed  and  wounded  soldiers.  Two  days  were 
devoted  to  establishing  and  strengthening  the  lines, 
the  sharpshooters  on  both  sides  keeping  up  a  lively  fire 
while  these  movements  were  going  on  in  the  rear. 

The  Ninth  corps  had  been  removed  from  its  position 
in  the  centre,  and  on  the  night  of  June  2  occupied  the 
extreme  right,  its  own  right  partially  exposed  and  its 
left  resting  near  Bethesda  church,  while  the  main  line 
stretched  back  to  a  point  not  far  from  the  Tolopotomoy. 
The  movement  had  not  been  made  without  loss  however, 
for,  being  done  in  broad  daylight,  it  had  been  quickly 
detected  by  the  enemy,  who,  following  up  the  skirmish 
ers  that  were  covering  the  operation,  succeeded  in 
taking  quite  a  number,  of  them  as  prisoners  ;  and  still 
farther  pursuing  their  advantage  by  an  assault  on  War 
ren's  left, — he  being  next  in  line  to  the  Ninth — captured 
nearly  four  hundred  more,  before  their  further  advance 
was  checked. 

That  night  General  Grant  resolved  to  attempt  to  force 
the  Confederate  lines  on  the  morrow,  with  the  purpose 
of  opening  the  passage  of  the  Chickahominy  and  driv- 


406  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [June, 

ing  Lee  into  the  intrenchments  around  Richmond.  The 
assault  was  begun  by  a  discharge  of  artillery  along  the 
Union  lines,  about  sunrise  on  the  3d  of  June,  which  was 
quickly  followed  by  a  magnificent  charge  on  the  left — 
a  charge  which  swept  everything  before  it  and  for  a 
brief  space  of  time  gave  to  the  bold  invaders  the  posses 
sion  of  the  highest  point  of  the  enemy's  position.  But 
the  supporting  columns  were  not  at  hand  to  secure  the 
advantage  thus  gained,  and  the  enemy  rallied,  poured 
an  enfilading  fire  upon  the  isolated  detachment,  and 
finally  compelled  them  to  choose  between  an  abandon 
ment  of  the  captured  position  and  utter  annihilation. 
Three  thousand  in  killed  and  wounded  was  a  high  price 
to  pay  for  an  advanced  position  and  three  hundred  pris 
oners,  surely  ! 

From  the  centre  the  assaults  were  less  determined, 
and  also  less  sanguinary,  while  on  the  right  the  Ninth 
corps  sustained  the  brunt  of  the  battle.  The  Second  and 
Third  divisions,  swinging  around  to  flank  the  enemy's 
left,  were  hotly  engaged,  but  made  a  decided  advance ; 
establishing  themselves  face  to  face  with  the  foe,  they 
awaited  the  order  to  move  upon  the  second  and  stronger 
line  of  the  coveted  position.  But  General  Meade  felt 
there  had  been  sacrifice  enough,  for  already  thousands 
of  men  were  writhing  on  the  blood-stained  sod,  and  Gen 
eral  Burnside  was  ordered  to  cease  offensive  operations. 
The  skirmish  line  was  drawn  in,  the  position  strength 
ened,  and  when  the  enemy,  presuming  on  the  non- 
pursuance  of  the  advantage  already  gained,  ventured 
an  assault  during  the  afternoon,  they  were  quickly  and 
vigorously  repulsed.  The  army  had  suffered  terribly, 
the  killed  and  wounded  in  the  Ninth  corps  alone  num 
bering  more  than  a  thousand :  and  it  had  all  been  in 


1864.]        FROM  THE  NORTH  ANNA   TO  PETERSBURG.          407 

vain,  for  the  road  to  Richmond  was  still  in  the  posses 
sion  of  the  enemy,  and  the  impossibility  of  crossing  the 
Chickahominy  at  this  point  proved. 

On  the  5th  and  6th  the  enemy  essayed  attacks  at  dif 
ferent  points  along  the  Union  lines,  but  was  successfully 
repulsed  each  time.  Then,  under  cover  of  an  armistice, 
the  wounded  were  removed  from  between  the  lines  and 
the  dead  were  buried.  Meanwhile  General  Meade  was 
carefully  maneuvering  for  a  change  of  base,  purposing 
to  throw  his  army  across  to  the  south  bank  of  the  James. 
The  next  few  days  were  devoted  to  preparations  for  the 
movement,  a  monotony  unbroken  by  any  event  save  an 
occasional  shot  from  a  watchful  picket  or  the  dull  boom 
of  the  mortars.  On  the  night  of  the  I2th  the  Army  of 
the  Potomac  was  southward  bound,  and  the  campaign 
north  of  the  James  river  was  a  thing  of  the  past. 

It  was  manifest  that  Grant  was  about  to  hazard 
another  flank  movement.  Richmond  was  not  so  much 
the  objective  point  as  was  Lee's  army,  and  this  Grant 
had  hoped  to  defeat  in  open  action  ;  but  from  the  time 
of  Lee's  attack  and  repulse  in  the  Wilderness  the  enemy 
had  fought  only  defensive  battles,  and  those  from  behind 
strongly  intrenched  works.  Grant's  persistent  "ham 
mering  "  had  been  successful  in  this  respect  if  in  no 
other,  and  the  first  breach  had  been  made  in  the  walls 
of  the  citadel.  It  was  time  now  for  a  change  in  tactics, 
and  Sheridan's  cavalry  having  destroyed  the  railroads 
running  north  from  Richmond,  thus  rendering  Washing 
ton  safe  from  any  serious  danger,  the  Union  commander 
was  ready  to  move  his  army  southward  and  attack  Rich 
mond  through  Petersburg,  the  citadel  of  the  Confederate 
capital. 

So  skilfully  and  so  secretly  was  the  army  withdrawn 


408  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [May 

from  its  position,  that  while  General  Lee  was  not  with 
out  knowledge  of  the  movement,  until  he  heard  of  Gen 
eral  Smith's  preliminary  assault  on  the  north-eastern 
line  of  the  defences  of  Petersburg,  on  the  I5th,  he  did 
not  know  for  what  point  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  was 
making.  The  Ninth  corps,  marching  by  way  of  Tun- 
stall's  Station,  reached  a  point  not  far  from  Sloane's 
crossing  of  the  Chickahominy  just  before  night  came  on 
of  the  1 3th,  and  bivouacked,  crossing  the  river  at  early 
dawn.  The  night  and  the  following  day  were  spent  with 
the  Sixth  corps  on  the  James  river.  Crossing  by  pon 
toons  on  the  evening  of  the  I5th,  the  corps  now  pushed 
rapidly  on  towards  Petersburg,  in  order  to  share  in  the 
operations  of  the  forces  under  Smith  and  Warren,  and 
was  closely  followed  by  the  Fifth.  By  ten  o'clock  on 
the  morning  of  the  i6th  the  advance  division  was  in 
front  of  Petersburg,  and  a  little  after  noon  the  entire 
corps  was  in  position  on  the  extreme  left  of  the  line. 


THE    ITINERARY    OF    THE    RANK    AND    FILE. 

From  their  hasty  bivouac  near  the  North  Anna,  on 
the  night  of  the  23d  of  May,  the  wearied  sleepers  were 
roused  at  an  early  hour  on  the  following  morning  by  the 
sharp  firing  of  skirmishers,  who  seemed  to  be  at  no  very 
great  distance.  The  troops  were  not  moved  until  about 
noon,  however,  when,  after  following  a  somewhat  circuit 
ous  route,  the  river  was  crossed  about  a  half  mile  to  the 
north  of  the  bridge  of  the  Virginia  Central  railroad,  and 
a  line  of  battle  was  formed.  The  bridge  and  its 
approaches  were  commanded  by  a  Confederate  bat 
tery,  which  pitilessly  showered  the  unprotected  foot- 


1864.]        FROM  THE  NORTH  ANNA   TO  PETERSBURG.          409 

soldiers  with  shells,  as  in  long  and  serried  ranks  they 
hurried  across  the  dangerous  pathway.  The  Ninth  New 
Hampshire  men  were  getting  the  knack  of  dodging 
these  missiles  perhaps,  for  not  a  man  in  the  regiment 
was  injured.  The  troops  lay  on  their  arms  that  night, 
but  the  only  disturber  of  their  peaceful  slumbers  was  a 
terrific  thunder-shower,  succeeded  by  a  heavy  rain 
which  lasted  until  morning.  Everything  was  quiet  dur 
ing  the  day,  but  in  anticipation  of  a  possible  night 
attack  the  men  were  set  to  work  building  breastworks, 
a  task  that  was  not  completed  until  near  night.  Then 
it  began  to  rain  again,  and  with  no  protection  but  their 
blankets  the  men  passed  rather  an  uncomfortable  night. 

During  the  afternoon  of  the  26th  there  was  heavy 
skirmish  firing  from  both  sides,  and  quite  a  number  of 
men  were  wounded.  In  the  evening  a  skirmishing 
party  was  sent  out,  who  succeeded  in  burning  the  bridge 
by  which  the  river  had  been  crossed  two  days  previous. 
Tramping  around  in  the  mud  until  two  o'clock  in  the 
morning  was  not  a  very  pleasant  experience,  to  say  the 
least,  and  the  hardness  of  the  couch  did  not  disturb 
the  heavy  slumbers  of  the  tired  soldiers  when  they  were 
finally  ordered  to  turn  in.  It  was  late  in  the  forenoon 
before  the  hurried  preparations  for  an  onward  move  of 
the  corps  aroused  them,  and  by  eleven  o'clock  the  long 
and  tedious  march  had  begun.  The  route  lay  to  the 
south,  between  the  Mattapony  and  the  Pamunkey,  and 
the  roads,  deep  with  mud,  were  soon  worn  into  ruts  by 
the  steady  tread  of  marching  feet. 

On  and  on,  through  all  the  long,  hot  afternoon,  with 
slow  but  constant  progress  they  marked  the  hours.  At 
sunset  there  was  a  brief  halt  for  coffee,  but  it  was  long 
past  midnight  when  the  men  threw  themselves  on  the 


410  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [May, 

ground  to  snatch  a  few  hours'  rest.  Routed  out  at 
daybreak,  they  were  again  on  the  road  by  six  o'clock, 
and  with  only  occasional  halts  for  rest  the  march  was 
kept  up  until  two  the  next  morning — twenty  hours  on 
a  stretch.  No  wonder  they  were  footsore,  and  that 
thousands  fell  out  by  the  way ;  no  wonder  the  men 
grumbled,  for  rations  were  short,  and  empty  stomachs 
are  not  conducive  to  good  temper. 

The  Pamunkey  had  been  crossed  shortly  after  mid 
night,  some  ten  miles  to  the  north  of  White  House  land 
ing,  and  the  army  had  bivouacked  about  a  mile  beyond 
the  crossing.  It  was  Sunday  morning,  but  it  brought 
no  baked  beans  and  brown  bread  to  the  hungry  soldiers  : 
instead,  they  were  ordered  to  the  front,  and  set  to  work 
digging  rifle-pits,  without  any  breakfast  whatever.  In 
the  afternoon  they  fell  back  to  the  woods  to  rest,  and 
having  received  a  ration  of  fresh  beef,  cooked  and  ate 
their  suppers  with  the  zest  that  only  hungry  men  can 
know.  This,  with  the  added  luxury  of  a  good  night's 
rest,  proved  to  be  a  most  effectual  tonic  for  both  mind 
and  body,  and  the  morning  of  the  3Oth  found  them  as 
cheery  and  ready  for  work  as  ever. 

That  day's  fortune  for  the  regiment  opened  with  a 
mail  from  home.  The  detail  to  serve  as  rear-guard  for 
the  trains  was  equally  welcome,  and  the  task  was  easier 
by  far  than  the  slow  drudgery  of  the  pick  and  shovel 
that  had  been  their  lot  on  the  day  before.  There  was 
brisk  firing  all  day  at  the  front,  and  all  night  long  the 
guns  of  the  batteries  kept  up  their  thunderous  booming — 
an  accompaniment  that  seems  to  act  as  a  lullaby  to  the 
veteran  soldier.  It  was  very  warm  on  the  3ist,  and 
during  the  early  hours  of  the  morning  the  men  had  a 
chance  to  cook  and  eat  breakfast  at  their  leisure,  and  to 


1864.]        FROM  THE  NORTH  ANNA   TO  PETERSBURG.          411 

clean  up  a  little — a  novel  enough  experience  in  those 
days.  Their  "  soft  job  "  soon  came  to  an  end,  however, 
for  noon  found  the  regiment  with  the  rest  of  the  brigade, 
right  at  the  front. 

The  line  of  battle  was  at  first  formed  in  the  edge 
of  a  piece  of  pine  woods,  and  the  men  at  once  set 
about  providing  themselves  with  breastworks,  but  before 
much  had  been  accomplished  in  this  direction  a  further 
advance  was  ordered,  the  Ninth  being  detailed  to  lead 
in  the  support  for  the  skirmishers.  The  line  is  quickly 
formed,  the  regiment  pushes  on  through  a  quarter  of  a 
mile  of  thick  forest,  then  down  into  a  ravine  and  up  its 
opposite  bank.  Driving  the  Confederate  pickets  before 
them  as  they  advance,  they  hurriedly  clamber  up  the 
steep  side  of  the  ridge  on  whose  crest  the  enemy  lies 
intrenched.  The  struggle  is  short  and  sharp,  a  dozen 
or  so  of  men  are  wounded,  and  a  few  fall,  never  to  rise 
again — but  the  works  are  ours,  and  the  Ninth  is  fully 
deserving  of  the  many  compliments  showered  upon  it 
for  its  gallant  conduct. 

O 

The  rest  of  the  line  now  arrived,  and  closing  in  on 
the  right  and  left  of  the  Ninth,  soon  placed  themselves 
behind  quite  formidable  intrenchments,  a  skirmish  line 
also  being  established  in  front.  The  Ninth  occupied 
this  a  part  of  the  afternoon,  and  had  the  pleasure  of 
sending  the  Johnnies  a  few  leaden  compliments  in  return 
for  their  own  unwelcome  favors.  A  brisk  skirmishing 
was  kept  up  until  dark,  the  heavy  fighting  being  carried 
on  more  to  the  left,  and  the  night  was  spent  in  the 
trenches,  one  half  of  the  men  doing  duty  while  the 
others  slept ;  but  no  advances  were  attempted  on  either 
side. 

June    came    in     fair    and     bright,    but    to    the    men 


412  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [June, 

cooped  up  in  the  hot  trenches  all  day  a  spell  of  cool 
weather  would  not  have  seemed  amiss.  There  was 
more  or  less  skirmishing  through  the  day,  but  towards 
night  the  firing  increased,  and  by  sunset  the  fighting 
had  spread  along  the  line  for  miles.  The  thunder  of 
the  artillery,  the  screaming  and  bursting  of  the  shells, 
the  crash  and  rattle  of  the  musketry,  were  almost 
deafening  for  a  time ;  but  the  occupants  of  the  rifle-pits 
were  not  disturbed,  and  the  night  soon  wore  away  its 
length. 

At  daybreak  on  the  2d  the  regiment  was  with 
drawn,  and  retiring  to  the  woods  rested  till  noon,  when 
a  move  of  a  few  miles  was  made  to  the  left,  which 
brought  them  to  the  vicinity  of  Bethesda  church,  around 
which  a  large  body  of  troops  were  then  massed.  In  the 
afternoon  a  heavy  shower  came  up,  and  just  at  sunset, 
as  the  men  were  making  their  coffee  for  supper,  and 
enjoying  to  the  full  the  cool  evening  breeze  that  swept 
down  from  the  hills,  the  sound  of  tremendous  musketry 
firing  to  the  rear  of  the  lines  broke  in  upon  the  quiet. 
Coffee  and  everything  else  was  forgotten  in  the  lively 
work  that  followed.  The  enemy  had  made  a  dash  on 
the  rear  lines,  and  had  been  beaten  off,  though  he  still 
clung  to  as  close  a  position  as  it  was  possible  to  hold. 
The  Ninth,  with  its  brigade,  was  thrown  out  on  the 
right  flank,  and  had  a  lively  race  for  some  breastworks, 
which  it  succeeded  in  occupying  before  the  enemy  could 
reach  them.  The  regiment  held  the  reserve,  or  front 
side  of  the  works,  and  spent  a  good  share  of  the  night 
in  rebuilding  them. 

The  morning  dawned,  thick  with  clouds  and  heavy 
with  rain,  but  with  the  first  gleam  of  light  a  perfect 
tornado  of  lead  and  iron  swept  through  field  and  forest, 


1864.]        FROM  THE  NORTH  ANNA   TO  PETERSBURG.          413 

and  sheets  of  flame  and  clouds  of  smoke  mingled  in 
frightful  masses,  as  wave  after  wave,  surge  after  surge, 
tide  after  tide  of  murderous  fire  ebbed  and  flowed  along 
the  far  extended  lines,  each  of  them  sweeping  hundreds 
of  souls  into  eternity.  The  division  was  engaged  more 
or  less  hotly  all  day,  but  the  Ninth,  having  been  detailed 
for  support  of  a  battery,  were  considerably  sheltered  by 
the  earthworks,  and  lost  only  a  few  men.  At  nightfall 
they  were  moved  to  a  position  at  the  front,  and  began 
to  throw  up  breastworks,  an  occupation  in  which  they 
were  beginning  to  rank  as  experts,  for  in  an  incredibly 
short  time  they  were  able  to  get  up  a  pretty  good  shelter 
from  the  bullets  of  the  enemy.  That  the  regiment's 
actual  participation  in  the  conflict  of  the  day  was  con 
fined  to  the  support  of  those  who  were  actively  engaged 
is  true,  but  very  apropos  as  to  the  effectiveness  with 
which  they  performed  the  task  assigned  them,  comes 
the  following  : 

One  of  the  chaplains,  ever  on  the  alert  for  the  welfare 
of  his  wayward  charges,  happened  to  get  into  the  vicin 
ity  of  the  battery  right  in  the  thick  of  the  fight.  The 
Confederate  shells  were  plowing  furrows  about  the  guns. 
and  the  cannoneers  were  grimly  and  diligently  address 
ing  themselves  to  the  work  of  giving  back  shot  for  shot. 
The  chaplain  watched  them  very  attentively  for  a  while, 
but  finally  edging  his  way  up  to  one  of  the  gunners,  who 
was  very  proficient,  but  at  the  same  time  rather  profane, 
the  good  man,  in  simple  justice  to  his  calling,  could  not 
refrain  from  a  gentle  remonstrance.  "  My  dear  friend," 
said  he,  "  if  you  go  on  this  way,  can  you  expect  the  sup 
port  of  Divine  Providence  ?"  "A'n't  expectin'  it,"  said 
the  gunner;  "the  Ninth  New  Hampshire  has  been 
ordered  to  support  this  battery." 


414  NINTH  NE  W  HAMPSHIRE.  [June, 

The  next  day  dawned  clear  and  beautiful,  but  the 
enemy  had  taken  advantage  of  the  darkness  to  withdraw 
from  the  front,  leaving  his  dead  upon  the  field.  The 
ground  they  had  occupied  showed  the  terrible  destruc 
tion  that  had  been  wrought  in  their  ranks,  and  one  bat 
tery  in  particular,  which  lay  just  within  range  of  the 
position  held  by  the  Ninth,  had  evidently  lost  about  all 
their  horses  and  a  good  many  men.  They  had  managed 
to  get  the  guns  off,  but  had  left  one  caisson  filled  with 
ammunition  and  blown  up  another.  Towards  night  the 
division  was  moved  about  two  miles  to  the  left,  relieving 
a  division  of  the  Fifth  corps  and  spending  the  night  in 
the  trenches.  Showery  nights  were  the  rule  rather  than 
the  exception,  and  this  night  was  no  exception  to  the 
rule,  for  the  men,  snugly  wrapped  in  their  blankets 
though  they  were,  got  a  pretty  thorough  wetting  before 
morning. 

A  week  slipped  away  behind  the  breastworks,  first  in 
one  position  and  then  in  another,  the  division  holding 
the  extreme  right  of  the  line  and  doing  more  or  less 
skirmishing.  Sunday,  the  i2th,  orders  came  for  the 
line  to  be  ready  to  move  at  dark,  and  by  eight  in  the 
evening  they  were  on  the  road,  making  the  start  as 
quietly  as  possible  and  leaving  out  a  picket  line  that 
remained  on  guard  till  three  in  the  morning.  The 
troops  marched  all  night,  and  the  five-o'clock  halt  for 
breakfast  found  them  within  three  miles  of  White  House 
landing.  Here  they  rested  till  noon,  when  they  were 
again  put  in  motion  and  kept  on  the  road  until  midnight, 
covering  only  about  ten  miles  however,  owing  to  the 
crowded  condition  of  the  roads.  The  route  followed 
was  across  country,  towards  the  James,  for  the  most 
part  through  a  region  so  sandy  and  poor  that  the  only 


1864.]        FROM  THE  NORTH  ANNA   TO  PETERSBURG.          415 

thing  that  could  make  any  growth  in  it  was  pine  trees, 
and  not  very  big  ones  at  that. 

The  Chickahominy  was  reached  and  crossed  in  the 
forenoon  of  the  I4th,  and  after  halting  for  dinner  there 
was  no  more  rest  till  night,  when  bivouac  was  made 
about  two  miles  from  Harrison's  landing  on  the  James. 
The  Sixth  corps  was  established  at  this  point,  and  the 
1 5th  was  spent  quietly  in  camp,  giving  the  men  a  chance 
to  rest  and  clean  up  a  little.  At  dark  orders  came  to 
move,  and  hardly  time  enough  for  the  necessary  issuing 
of  rations  was  allowed  before  the  troops  were  started  for 
the  river,  which  was  crossed  on  a  pontoon  bridge  nearly 
a  half  mile  in  length.  Once  across,  the  column  pushed 
on  as  rapidly  as  possible  towards  Petersburg,  now  some 
thirty  miles  away. 


A    DRUMMER   BOY'S    SERVICE    IN    THE    RANKS. 
By  Frank  S.  Ritter. 

On  the  29th  of  May  the  regiment  relieved  the  Twenty- 
first  Massachusetts  as  guards  of  the  division  wagon  train. 
On  the  morning  of  the  3Oth  we  were  again  ordered  to 
the  front,  to  strengthen  the  picket  line.  In  making  this 
advance  we  had  to  pass  through  a  large  tract  of  heavy 
timber,  in  which  were  several  ravines  with  an  under 
growth  of  sweetbrier,  and  in  the  farther  edge  of  the 
woods  was  a  very  deep  ravine,  with  abrupt  sides  which 
were  very  difficult  to  climb.  A  few  yards  in  advance 
of  this  ravine  was  an  irregular  breastwork,  in  front  of 
which,  at  one  place,  in  plain  view,  were  two  Johnnies, 
loading  and  firing  as  if  the  fate  of  rebeldom  hung  on 
their  efforts.  One  shot  hit  three  members  of  the  com 
pany, — one  in  the  hip,  one  in  the  knee,  and  the  third 


41 6  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [June, 

in  the  ankle.  The  first  one  came  back  to  us  after 
several  months,  but  the  other  two  never  recovered,  and 
never  will.  I  endeavored  to  reply  to  this  shot,  but  my 
musket  being  without  a  cap, — which  had  come  off  some 
how  in  passing  through  the  brush — failed  to  speak,  and 
before  I  could  recap  the  piece  the  Johnnies  were  out  of 
reach. 

We  halted  at  the  breastworks  and  began  to  strengthen 
them,  and  learned  later  that  had  we  but  advanced  a  lit 
tle,  to  the  edge  of  the  ravine,  we  might  have  captured 
several  prisoners.  Here  we  lay  for  two  days,  most  of 
the  time  under  a  heavy  fire  from  our  artillery.  In  the 
afternoon  of  the  first  or  second  day  of  June,  the  Second, 
Fifth,  and  Ninth  corps  were  massed  in  a  field  but  a 
short  distance  from  Bethesda  church,  and  while  there 
we  experienced  the  inconvenience  of  one  of  those  sud 
den  Virginia  showers.  How  it  did  rain  !  And  how  we 
enjoyed  it,  without  any  kind  of  a  shelter  but  the  sky 
above  us,  and  that  sending  down  a  perfect  deluge  of 
water  !  Having  lost  my  rubber  blanket  back  at  Spott- 
sylvania, — some  one  having  borrowed  it  to  carry  off  a 
wounded  comrade  and  failed  to  return  it — I  was  but  a 
sorry  looking  object  when  at  last  the  clouds  broke 
away. 

Hardly  had  the  drops  ceased  to  fall  when  we  were 
startled  by  the  crash  of  a  heavy  volley -of  musketry. 
The  rear-guard  was  the  Second  New  York  mounted 
rifles, — but  they  were  never  mounted  I  think — who  were 
equipped  with  breech-loading  or  repeating  rifles.  How 
those  volleys  did  crash  !  How  the  staff  officers  did  gal 
lop  about,  and  what  a  swarm  of  men  there  was  to  get 
into  their  proper  positions,  and  with  a  mighty  short 
time  to  do  it  in  too  !  A.  P.  Hill  was  after  us,  and  he 


JOHN  P.  WEBSTER,  Co.  G. 


HIRAM  THURBER,  Co.  G. 


WILLIAM  B.  ROBBINS,  Co.  G.  NAPOLEON  B.  OSGOOD,  Co.  G. 


1864.]        FROM  THE  NORTH  ANNA   TO  PETERSBURG.         417 

did  not  mean  to  let  us  get  any  advantage.  Soon  our 
brigade  was  in  line,  and  running  for  some  breastworks 
across  an  open  field.  It  was  "  Get  there,  Eli !  "  with  a 
vengeance,  for  we  wanted  those  breastworks  and  so  did 
Hill ;  but  we  got  there  first,  although  we  were  on  the 
reverse  side.  Such  a  race  as  it  had  been  !  Immediately 
behind  the  breastworks  was  a  large  field  of  sweet  pota 
toes,  just  well  growing,  and  the  soil  was  so  soft  from 
the  shower  that  we  went  in  nearly  over  ankles  at  every 
step.  At  the  rear  and  to  the  left  of  the  potato  patch  was 
a  set  of  buildings,  while  nearly  all  the  way  back  to  the 
church — about  a  third  of  a  mile,  as  I  should  judge  now — 
the  ground  was  covered  with  running  blackberry  vines. 
Having  worn  out  my  shoes  some  days  before,  I  had  the 
best  of  reasons  for  remembering  the  run  for  those  breast 
works.  We  lay  at  the  works  that  night,  and  the  Third 
Massachusetts  battery  was  throwing  shells  over  our 
heads  about  every  minute  it  seemed ;  but  for  all  our  dis 
comforts  we  slept,  and  I  for  one  slept  well. 

Early  the  next  morning  a  battery  was  moved  up  to 
the  works  just  at  the  right  of  the  regiment,  arrd  we  were 
ordered  to  support  it.  The  buildings  spoken  of  were 
taken  as  a  division  hospital,  and  as  the  rest  of  the  divi 
sion  were  advanced,  and  the  fire  soon  became  a  deaf 
ening  roar,  the  wounded  men  began  to  pour  back,  and 
those  of  the  men  who  could  be  spared  were  detailed  to 
help  the  wounded  across  the  field  to  the  hospital.  I 
went  with  one,  a  member  of  the  Sixth  New  Hampshire, 
who  was  shot  somewhere  in  the  arm,  and  as  he  had  to 
wait  for  his  turn  he  lay  down  in  the  shade  of  one  of  the 
buildings.  Hardly  had  I  left  him  when  a  solid  shot 
passed  completely  through  his  body. 

About  noon  a  member  of  Company  A,  who  claimed 

XXVII 


418  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [June, 

to  be  blind  but  had  been  detailed  as  a  cook  for  the 
officers'  mess,  came  up  with  their  dinner,  and  while 
dishing  it  out  a  shell  burst  overhead.  He  just  dumped 
that  grub  and  put  for  the  rear,  but  had  gone  only  a 
little  way  when  another  one  exploded,  way  off  in  his 
front,  and  turning  to  the  left  he  was  off  again.  How 
the  mud  did  fly  and  how  we  did  laugh  at  his  antics  ! 
Soon  he  was  directly  in  the  rear  of  the  battery,  when  off 
went  two  or  three  of  them  at  once.  Nature  could  do  no 
more  ;  he  was  completely  fagged  out,  and  nearly  scared 
to  death.  Some  one  went  to  him,  and  helped  him  to 
the  rear,  and  in  a  few  days  he  was  discharged,  and 
should  have  been  months  before. 

Just  before  dark  we  were  taken  by  the  right  flank  *up 
to  the  advanced  line,  but  the  regiment  was  not  dis 
turbed  ;  there  was  considerable  noise  over  where  we 
expected  the  Johnnies  were,  but  no  firing.  At  day 
light  a  light  skirmish  line  was  sent  out,  who  reported 
no  enemy  in  our  front,  and  we  were  soon  looking  over 
the  field.  Near  our  line  lay  several  dead  men,  and 
one  of  them  had  on  a  pair  of  good  boots  that  seemed 
to  be  about  my  size.  What  would  the  reader  do  in 
the  same  fix?  The  reader  wants  to  know  what  I  did? 
Well,  I  borrowed  the  boots  and  wore  them  out.  Quite 
a  little  distance  from  us  was  a  piece  of  woods  with  an 
acute  angle  to  the  brigade  line,  and  here  in  the  angle 
was  the  Confederate  battery  which  our  own  battery 
had  been  shelling  nearly  all  the  day  before.  I  saw 
an  exploded  limber,  a  disabled  caisson,  and  sixty-nine 
dead  horses.  Between  this  angle  and  some  slight 
intrenchments  which  our  troops  had  thrown  up  the 
night  before,  was  a  small  clump  of  bushes,  and  in 
these  bushes  I  found  a  young  calf — perhaps  it  was  three 


1864.]        FROM  THE  NORTH  ANNA   TO  PETERSBURG.          419 

weeks  old — shot  through  the  body  and  lying  out  at  full 
length.  I  had  seen  hundreds  of  dead  men  and  not  felt 
a  quiver,  but  that  little  dead  calf  caused  the  tears  to 
come  unbidden. 

That  afternoon  we  were  marched  to  Cold  Harbor, 
and  were  there  several  days,  but  did  not  see  much 
fighting.  While  there  we  changed  our  position  twice, 
and  on  the  last  day's  stay  I  was  detailed  for  picket 
duty.  Here  the  pickets  were  sent  out  in  detachments, 
four  men  and  a  corporal.  We  were  posted  just  after 
dark,  and  before  morning  had  a  rifle-pit  large  enough 
to  hold  us  all.  We  occasionally  sent  back  to  the  regi 
ment  during  the  day,  and  we  found  that  if  a  man  went 
as  if  he  didn't  care  whether  he  was  seen  or  not,  the 
Johnnies  did  not  trouble  him  ;  but  if  one  tried  to  sneak 
or  skulk  along,  he  was  sure  to  get  fired  at.  Some 
time  in  the  afternoon  we  were  informed  that  at  9  p.  m. 
the  brigade  was  to  retire,  but  that  we  must  hold  the 
picket  line  until  two  the  next  morning,  and  then  follow. 

How  slowly  the  hours  passed  that  night,  for  each 
man  knew  what  was  expected  of  him,  and  each  man 
hoped  that  he  would  not  see  or  hear  of  anything.  At 
midnight  word  was  passed  to  fasten  everything  so  as 
not  to  make  the  least  noise,  and  to  fall  back,  a  man  at 
a  time,  to  the  breastworks  of  the  main  line.  It  hap 
pened  that  my  lot  was  to  be  the  last  man  to  leave  the 
pit,  but  I  made  good  time  back  to  the  works.  We 
were  soon  under  way,  and  after  about  an  hour's  tramp 
began  to  discern  in  the  darkness  what  looked  to  be  a 
row  of  posts,  but  which  proved  to  be  a  skirmish  line. 
We  passed  this  and  another  line,  and  formed  one  our 
selves.  Then,  after  these  two  lines  had  passed  through 
our  line,  we  marched  without  a  halt  until  noon,  when 


420  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [May, 

we  overtook  the  brigade.     I  think  it  was  the  next  day 
that  we  reached  the  James  river. 

We  lay  there  one  day,  while  the  engineers  were 
building  the  pontoon  bridge,  which  we  crossed  just  at 
dark.  Some  time  in  the  night  Thomas  Spencer  and 
myself  fell  out  of  the  ranks,  and  crawling  into  the 
bushes  went  off  to  sleep.  We  were  up  and  off  at  day 
light,  and  travelled  hard  all  day.  About  three  in  the 
afternoon  we  came  to  a  divide  in  the  road  :  Which 
should  we  take,  the  one  to  the  left,  or  straight  in  front? 
Neither  one  of  us,  of  course,  knew.  Pretty  soon  we 
saw  two  horsemen,  who  looked  to  be  a  quartermaster 
and  an  orderly,  coming  down  the  straight  road.  "  Quar 
termaster,"  we  said,  "  which  way  is  our  brigade?" 
"Up  that  left-hand  road  about  a  mile,"  was  the  ready 
answer.  We  thanked  him,  saluted,  and  as  he  returned 
the  salute  the  visor  of  his  cap  fell,  disclosing  the  three 
stars  of  a  lieutenant-general !  In  what  other  army  than 
our  own  would  it  have  done  for  a  poor  private  and  a 
musician  to  have  inquired  the  way  of  the  Commander- 
in-chief  ?  The  general  and  his  orderly  rode  off,  leaving 
us  thunderstruck  at  our  temerity  ;  but  this  only  lasted  a 
short  time,  and  we  went  in  search  of  the  brigade,  finding 
them  about  four  o'clock.  For  some  days  I  had  been 
thinking  that  I  had  seen  enough  of  soldiering  in  the 
ranks,  and  as  musicians  were  not  compelled  to  shoulder 
a  musket,  I  concluded  not  to  take  any  more  in  mine. 


SAVED    BY    A    DETOUR. 
By  Lieut.  S.  H.  Perry. 

On  the  3Oth  of  May,  1864,  I  was  in  command  of  Com 
pany  G,  as  first  lieutenant.     Report  came  that  the  Forty- 


1864.]        FROM  THE  NORTH  ANNA   TO  PETERSBURG.-        421 

eighth  Pennsylvania,  who  were  on  the  skirmish  line  in 
our  front,  had  run  against  a  snag — having  lost  their 
major  and  two  other  officers,  and  quite  a  number  of 
men,  on  this  particular  part  of  the  line,  which  was  up  a 
ravine ;  and  orders  were  sent  for  the  Ninth  New  Hamp 
shire  to  relieve  both  the  regiment  and  skirmishers.  I 
was  detailed  to  command  the  skirmish  line,  and  on 
making  inquiries  of  the  officer  in  command,  I  learned 
that  all  the  officers  had  been  hit  in  crossing  a  path, 
and  in  almost  the  same  spot.  Making  a  detour,  I  took 
my  men  across,  some  four  or  five  rods  back  from  that 
spot,  and  although  we  were  shot  at,  the  bullets  flew 
wide  of  the  mark.  Hardly  had  I  got  my  men  posted 
when  I  heard  General  Griffin  order,  "Forward,  Ninth 
New  Hampshire  skirmishers!"  and  then  "Forward, 
Ninth  New  Hampshire!"  Forward  we  went  with  a 
right  good  will,  pushing  the  Johnnies  back,  and  carry 
ing  the  much  desired  position,  contrary  to  the  expecta 
tions  of  some  of  the  staff  officers,  who  had  been  sent  to 
countermand  the  order  for  an  advance,  and  who  at  that 
time  claimed  that  the  whole  move  was  well  carried  out. 


THE  ENGAGEMENT  AT  TOLOPOTOMOY    CREEK. 
By  Sergt.  George  L.  Wakefield. 

Just  previous  to  the  engagement  at  Tolopotomoy,  Gen 
eral  Potter  had  given  Captain  Hough,  who  had  been 
the  commanding  officer  of  the  regiment  since  Captain 
Stone's  death,  orders  to  take  us  to  the  rear,  give  us  a 
rest  of  three  days,  to  draw  all  the  rations  we  could  get, 
and  to  fill  up  for  a  general  good  time.  We  had  been 
there  in  the  rear  just  about  long  enough  to  draw  our 
rations  and  get  them  partly  cooked,  when  an  orderly 


422  NINTH  NE  W  HA  MPSHIRE.  [ M ay, 

came  galloping  up  with  a  message  that  we  were 
ordered  back  to  the  front.  We  went  there  on  the 
double-quick  most  of  the  way,  and  passing  over  the 
Forty-eighth  Pennsylvania,  plunged  through  a  piece 
of  swamp  and  up  a  sharp  hill  where  the  rebels  were 
intrenched.  The  rebels  were  driven  away  from  the 
brow  of  the  hill  in  utter  confusion,  and  then  we  lay 
down  on  the  outer  side  of  their  breastworks.  In  a  few 
minutes  General  Potter  himself  was  seen  coming  up 
the  hill  afoot.  Said  he,  as  soon  as  he  reached  us, 
"  Thank  God,  you  are  not  captured  !"  and  then  added, 
a  moment  afterwards,  "  If  you  had  been,  I  would  have 
followed  you  to  Richmond  but  what  I  would  have  re 
taken  you  ! " 

It  transpired  afterwards  that  other  brigades  had 
already  charged  this  same  position,  but  had  been 
repulsed  and  were  unable  to  carry  it.  Finally,  Gen 
eral  Potter,  in  despair,  rode  up  to  General  Griffin  and 
said,  "For  God's  sake,  Griffin,  have  n't  you  got  some 
thing  that  can  take  that  position?"  "Yes,"  replied 
General  Griffin  without  an  instant's  hesitation,  "I've 
got  a  little  regiment  right  out  here  that  can  do  it." 
And  he  sent  for  the  Ninth  New  Hampshire,  and  they 
did  do  it,  though  they  lost  one  killed  and  sixteen 
wounded  just  in  that  little  charge. 

In  this  battle  the  rebels  used  explosive  balls.  One  of 
them  struck  Lyman  Sargent  of  Company  G  in  the  leg, 
and  exploding,  tore  the  calf  of  the  leg  all  to  pieces.  In 
fact,  the  regiment  had  never  before  gone  through  any 
place  where  there  was  as  much  horror  surrounding  it, 
on  account  of  the  explosive  balls  and  the  nature  of  the 
ground  and  the  thickness  of  the  brush,  and  it  has  always 
been  regarded  as  the  most  brilliant  achievement  of  the 


1864.]        FROM  THE  NORTH  ANNA   TO  PETERSBURG.          423 

regiment  during  its  service.  It  was  generally  under 
stood  in  the  army  that  the  regiment  assigned  the  posi 
tion  of  supporting  a  battery  actively  engaged  was  occu 
pying  a  post  of  special  favor  and  honor,  and  the  appoint 
ment  of  the  Ninth  New  Hampshire  to  the  support  of  a 
battery  on  the  days  following  the  engagement  at  Tolo- 
potomoy  creek,  was  therefore  an  official  recognition  of 
its  reliability  and  achievements. 


TOLOPOTOMOY    FROM    ANOTHER   POINT    OF   VIEW. 
By  Se'rgt.  Newell  T.  Button . 

We  were  taking  our  turn  as  guard  for  the  baggage 
train  that  day,  and  were  somewhat  surprised  when  we 
were  ordered  to  proceed  at  once  to  the  front ;  but  we 
were  there  to  obey  orders,  so  we  went  up  there  on  the 
double-quick  until  we  came  to  a  piece  of  woods,  where 
we  halted  for  a  few  minutes.  Just  down  in  front  the 
Forty-eighth  Pennsylvania  was  doing  picket  duty,  and 
in  one  way  and  another  there  was  considerable  fighting 
going  on,  and  every  few  minutes  somebody  that  had 
been  wounded  would  be  brought  out.  Then  General 
Griffin  rode  up  to  Captain  Hough  and  said,  "Captain 
Hough,  take  your  regiment  and  advance  upon  the 
•enemy.  You  will  go  down  the  woods  until  you  come 
to  a  run,  which  you  will  cross;  then  you  will  come 
to  a  steep  bank,  and  on  the  top  of  that  bank,  to  the 
right,  are  the  enemy  :  you  are  to  drive  them  from  their 
position  ! " 

We  all  knew  what  that  meant :  it  was  a  feeler ;  but 
we  went  down  the  woods,  and  formed  in  line  across  the 
roots  and  branches  when  we  got  to  the  bottom  of  the 


424  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [Juner 

steep  bank.  We  had  to  pull  ourselves  up  by  the  bushes 
about  two  thirds  of  the  way,  and  then  we  had  to  stop 
for  a  minute  to  get  our  breath  and  straighten  the  line. 
Then,  with  one  tremendous  yell  we  went  for  the  enemy, 
drove  them  back  from  their  strong  picket  line,  and  into 
the  second  line  of  their  intrenchments.  The  rest  of  the 
brigade  was  then  brought  up,  the  line  was  established, 
fortifications  were  strengthened  and  enlarged,  and  the 
position  was  safely  ours. 

We  lay  there  two  or  three  days,  and  then  were 
thrown  out — perhaps  a  mile  back — into  a  locality  that 
was  a  trifle  more  dangerous,  for.  before  we  had  been 
there  two  hours  the  rebels  were  coming  in  on  our  left. 

o 

The  night  was  spent  in  putting  up  a  line  of  works 
between  our  troops  and  the  rebels ;  and  we  were  willing 
to  work  hard  too,  for  we  had  been  living  on  short  rations 
and  were  anxious  to  secure  communication  for  the  army 
with  the  supplies.  In  the  morning  the  Ninth  New 
Hampshire  was  ordered  to  remain  in  reserve,  to  hold 
the  position,  while  the  rest  of  the  division  charged  the 
enemy.  It  had  been  thought  that  they  occupied  a  posi 
tion  that  controlled  the  lines  of  the  enemy  in  a  manner 
to  prevent  their  escaping.  The  next  morning,  however, 
it  was  discovered  that  they  had  managed  to  get  away 
during  the  night,  but  they  left  ground  behind  them  that 
was  covered  with  dead  men  and  horses.  It  was  said 
that  they  lost  every  horse  in  the  battery,  and  I  myself 
saw  trees  that  would  measure  over  a  foot  through  that 
were  shot  off  by  the  Minies  of  the  Sixth  New  Hamp 
shire. 

From  there  we  went  to  Cold  Harbor,  where  we  did 
not  do  any  fighting,  though  occupying  a  position  in  the 
line.  We  did  a  good  deal  of  moving  around  while  we 


1864.]        FROM  THE  NORTH  ANNA   TO  PETERSBURG.          425 

were  there,  but  lost  no  men.  After  a  week  of  this  kind 
of  work  we  were  ordered  to  be  ready  to  move  at  short 
notice,  and  having  left  Cold  Harbor  behind  us  on  the 
evening  of  the  I2th  of  June,  we  marched  all  that  night 
and  all  the  next  day.  We  were  given  a  little  sleep  the 
next  night,  but  were  kept  on  the  move  all  of  the  follow 
ing  day  and  until  late  at  night. 


THE   NINTH    AT    BETHESDA    CHURCH. 
By  Sergt.  George  L.  Wakefield. 

The  first  that  we  knew  of  the  rebels  being  on  us  at. 
Bethesda  church  was  when  our  rear  picket  was  driven 
in,  and  their  advice  to  us  was  to  "Hurry  up  and  get 
out  of  here  !  "  but  our  division  proceeded  to  form  several 
lines  of  battle,  one  behind  the  other.  Just  in  the  rear  of 
the  first  line  were  several  pieces  of  artillery,  but  after 
the  first  line  had  advanced  the  second  moved  up  and 
fired  off  two  or  three  volleys.  The  rebels  broke  then, 
and  started  to  run  across  the  plowed  field,  making  the 
best  time  they  knew  in  order  to  reach  the  breastworks ; 
but  to  capture  those  breastworks  meant  just  as  much  to 
us  as  it  did  to  them,  and  although  they  had  the  advan 
tage  of  a  start,  we  got  there  first.  Then  they  fell  back 
across  the  low  piece  of  ground  to  the  edge  of  the  pine 
woods,  where  they  had  another  line  of  breastworks  built 
out  of  pine  logs.  Before  they  had  time  to  get  any  dirt 
on  the  outside  of  those  logs  our  artillery  opened  fire, 
and  knocked  the  logs  right  over  on  top  of  the  rebels. 
Then  we  sat  down  very  close  to  their  lines,  and  com 
menced  to  throw  up  earthworks  with  our  bayonets  and 
such  tools  as  we  happened  to  have,  keeping  up  a  pretty 
steadv  skirmish  fire  in  the  mean  time  till  after  dark. 


426  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [June, 

The  next  morning,  after  our  skirmishers  had  discovered 
that  the  enemy  had  retreated  during  the  night,  we  went 
over  to  look  around,  and  it  was  a  pretty  hard  looking 
sight. 


CAPTURING    A   REBEL   COURIER. 
By  Sergt.  William  A.  McGarrett. 

On  the  2d  of  June,  1864,  while  Burnside  and  Warren 
were  maneuvering  for  position  at  Cold  Harbor,  the 
enemy  left  his  works  and  attacked  us  with  great  severity, 
but  was  repulsed  with  heavy  loss.  I  was  detailed  as  a 
skirmisher,  and  at  once  moved  forward  with  the  line 
across  an  open  field,  through  an  awful  fire  of  bullets 
and  shells,  and  halted  at  a  brook  that  was  lined  on 
either  side  by  bushes  and  small  trees.  Here  we  stopped 
to  breathe,  and  while  waiting  there  a  horseman  came 
between  the  rebel  lines  and  ours  on  a  full  gallop,  and 
then  stopped  a  moment,  as  if  in  doubt  whether  to  go 
any  farther.  The  rebels  were  yelling  for  him  to  come 
in,  but  his  stop  was  fatal  for  him.  I  told  the  boys  to 
shoot  him  if  he  tried  to  get  away,  and  I  sprang  forward, 
behind  the  trees  and  bushes,  and  captured  him  within 
ninety  feet  of  his  own  lines.  Amid  a  storm  of  bullets  I 
hurried  him  back  to  our  regiment,  which  was  back  of 
an  old  line  of  breastworks.  I  received  the  cheers  of  my 
company,  and  delivered  my  prisoner  to  Captain  Hough, 
who  was  then  in  command  of  the  regiment.  I  then 
returned  to  my  comrades  on  the  skirmish  line  through 
another  spattering  fire  from  the  rebs.  This  was  the 
best  dressed  and  best  mounted  rebel  I  had  ever  seen  up 
to  that  time.  He  carried  despatches  from  Lieut.  Gen. 
A.  P.  Hill  to  Gen.  R.  S.  Ewell.  The  whole  outfit  was 


SERGT.  WILLIAM  A.  MCGARRETT,  Co.  A. 


4864.]        FROM  THE  NORTH  ANNA   TO  PETERSBURG.          427 

safely  landed  at  General  Burnside's  head-quarters,  and 
he  immediately  ordered  an  advance.  The  enemy  were 
driven  from  their  position  with  terrible  loss.  I  went 
over  the  ground  the  next  day  with  Adjutant  Brown,  and 
found  the  woods  full  of  dead  and  wounded  Confederates, 
it  being  especially  horrible  in  a  road  where  the  enemy 
had  taken  shelter,  which  was  raked  by  our  batteries. 
Captain  Little  shook  my  hand  warmly,  and  said,  "  Billy, 
you  deserve  straps  for  this,  and  I  will  do  what  I  can  to 
get  them  for  you  !  "  and  I  honestly  believe  that  if  Colonel 
Titus  had  been  with  the  regiment  then  I  would  have 
got  them. 

McGARRETTS    RECEIPT  FOR    HIS    PRISONER. 

HEAD-QUARTERS  9TH  REGT.  N.  H.  VOLS., 

IN  THE  FIELD,  JUNE  2d,  1864. 

This  is  to  certify  that  Sergeant  William  A.  McGarrett  of  Company 
A  of  this  Regiment  Captured  a  Rebel  this  evening.  Said  Rebel  was 
supposed  to  be  a  Courier  for  the  Rebel  General  A.  P.  Hill,  and  at  the 
time  was  approaching  our  skirmish  line,  mistaking  it  for  the  Rebels.' 
Said  prisoner  was  mounted  at  the  time  of  Capture. 

A.  J.  HOUGH, 
Captain  Coni'd'g  qth  N.  H.  Vols. 


THE    CAMP    ON    THE   JAMES    RIVER. 
By  Sergt.  Newell  T.  Button. 

For  some  time  before  we  left  Cold  Harbor  we  had 
been  kept  on  rather  short  rations,  and  while  we  were 
on  the  march  the  hard-tack  and  everything  else  gave 
out.  When  the  boys  found  it  out  they  began  to  yell, 
"Hard-tack!  hard-tack!  give  us  some  hard-tack!" 
with  all  their  might,  and  they  kept  it  a-going  for  quite 


428  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [June, 

a  while  too ;  but  no  hard-tack  was  forthcoming,  in  spite 
of  their  plaintive  appeals.  The  road  was  so  full  of  troops 
that  we  had  to  keep  halting  every  now  and  then,  and  it 
seemed  almost  as  if  we  were  n't  making  any  headway  at 
all,  so  it  isn't  any  wonder  that  the  boys  got  impatient. 
But  General  Griffin  kept  cheering  us  up,  telling  us  that 
when  we  got  to  camp  everything  would  be  all  right. 
We  got  into  camp  that  night  at  ten  o'clock,  but  the 
promise  of  something  to  eat  was  not  fulfilled  until  the 
next  morning,  except  with  the  few  who  were  lucky 
enough  to  find  something  for  themselves.  Sergeant 
Burnham  was  blessed  with  a  special  talent  in  the  forag 
ing  line,  and  could  be  depended  on  to  have  something 
good,  even  under  the  most  unfavorable  circumstances, 
and  was  always  glad  to  share  with  his  comrades  too, 
for  what  he  gathered  with  one  hand  he  was  just  as 
ready  to  divide  with  the  other.  So,  when  my  hunger 
began  to  get  the  upper  hands  of  me,  I  went  in  search 
of  Burnham,  and  sure  enough,  with  his  usual  good  luck,, 
he  had  laid  hold  of  a  fine  young  pig  just  right  to  roast. 
He  had  already  gone  halves  with  another  comrade,  but 
it  did  n't  take  long  to  build  a  fire  to  roast  that  other  half, 
and  no  roast  turkey  with  all  its  fixings  will  ever  taste 
any  better  to  me  than  did  that  piece  of  pig  with  only 
salt  for  seasoning. 

We  lay  in  camp  all  day  and  until  the  next  night,  and 
about  dusk  were  ordered  to  be  ready  to  march  at  once. 
We  had  already  received  orders  to  draw  special  rations 
that  night,  and  remain  where  we  were,  but  after  we 
were  in  line  and  had  started  they  opened  the  boxes  of 
hard-tack,  and  we  took  them  as  we  went.  We  marched 
all  that  night,  and  at  six  o'clock  the  next  morning 
bivouacked  for  breakfast.  Only  three  men  were  there 


1864.]        FROM  THE  NORTH  ANNA   TO  PETERSBURG.          429 

to  stack  their  arms  for  the  bearers  to  set  their  colors 
against.  That  was  on  the  morning  of  the  i6th  of  June, 
and  the  order  had  been,  ''fifty-five  minutes  on  the  road 
and  five  minutes  for  rest,"  all  through  the  night.  We 
were  allowed  an  hour  for  breakfast  that  morning,  and 
before  the  hour  was  up,  nearly  the  whole  regiment  had 
come  up,  and  had  cooked  their  coffee,  so  that  we  were 
all  ready  to  start  off  with  the  brigade.  We  marched 
until  two  o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  without  halting  for 
dinner,  and  were  then  ordered  to  rest,  cook  coffee,  and 
be  ready  to  support  the  Second  corps  in  a  charge  on 
the  defences  of  Petersburg  at  four  o'clock.  This  was  a 
march  of  thirty  miles,  and  one  of  the  toughest  the  regi 
ment  ever  experienced. 


TOLD   IN    HOME   LETTERS. 
By  Sergt.    James   W.  Lathe. 

June  5. — We  are  getting  down  near  the  Chickahominy, 
where  I  suppose  supplies  will  be  plenty  in  a  few  days. 
Send  me  a  dollar  or  two  at  a  time,  for  I  have  no  money, 
and  a  little  more  to  eat  won't  hurt  me.  On  the  2d  we 
left  our  rifle-pits  and  moved  along  the  line,  leaving  the 
field  to  the  rebs  as  usual.  We  had  moved  about  a  mile 
and  a  half,  and  nearly  all  the  Ninth  corps  had  stacked 
arms  in  a  field  except  a  strong  rear-guard.  We  had 
not  been  there  long  when  a  dreadful  thunder-shower 
came  up,  drenching  us  through  and  through.  Before 
the  shower  was  over  we  heard  rapid  musketry  in  our 
rear,  and  soon  the  mass  of  soldiers  was  unwound  into 
two  lines  of  battle.  The  Third  division  had  nearly  all 
the  fighting  that  night.  It  was  apparent  that  the  enemy 


430  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [June,, 

was  moving  east,  or  extending  their  line  east,  and  our 
division  moved  forward  to  the  east  and  right,  and  dur 
ing  the  night  built  breastworks,  and  the  Seventh  Maine 
battery  took  position  at  the  right  of  our  regiment. 

Just  after  daylight  the  First  brigade  went  over  the 
breastworks,  and  soon  found  the  rebs.  Our  column 
advanced  to  within  fifteen  rods,  and  then  they  halted 
and  fought  all  day.  Some  of  them  were  new  regimentsr 
and  stood  in  the  open  field  and  fired  at  the  rebs  behind 
breastworks  and  in  the  woods,  bringing  up  logs  and 
rails  as  they  could,  to  try  to  cover  themselves ;  but  many 
a  poor  soldier  fell.  Duncan  Campbell  was  hit  in  the 
leg  below  the  knee,  shattering  the  bone.  He  said, 
"Go  on,  boys,  and  give  it  to  them;  I'm  wounded!" 
and  never  complained  a  word.  He  will  lose  his  leg,  but 
such  a  man  will  not  lose  his  life. 

Our  regiment  was  moved  up  before  night,  and  during 
the  night  heavy  breastworks  were  built  all  along  the 
line.  In  the  morning  the  rebs  had  gone.  The  battery 
that  we  were  supporting  had  got  a  good  range  of  the 
rifle-pits,  and  did  great  execution,  nearly  annihilating  a 
battery  and  all  its  horses,  piling  the  men  up  also.  The 
trees  where  the  rebs  were  concealed  were  filled  with 
bullets,  and  many  cut  down  by  cannon  shot.  The  rebs 
have  not  captured  our  wagons,  as  they  usually  have  in. 
other  campaigns,  but  have  been  baffled  everywhere- 
Probably  that  move  was  to  capture  our  immense  wagon 
train,  but  A.  P.  Hill  got  badly  whipped  by  the  Ninth 
corps,  and  made  out  as  soon  as  possible.  We  have 
moved  about  two  miles  from  the  battle-field  of  the  3d,, 
towards  the  Chickahominy,  and  connected  with  the 
Eighteenth  corps.  The  battle  of  the  3d  was  the  first 
battle-field  that  has  been  left  in  Union  hands  in  this 


1864.]        FROM  THE  NORTH  ANNA   TO  PETERSBURG.          431 

campaign.  The  rebs  show  a  strong  front  here  as  usual, 
but  we  have  an  awful  army,  and  it  seems  invincible.  It 
is  strange  how  our  men  hold  out  so  well,  but  they  do  n't 
seem  to  get  sick  on  what  would  kill  every  one  of  them 
at  home.  The  mails  are  not  certain,  but  I  think  they 
will  be  better  now,  coming  by  White  House  landing. 

June  6. — The  rebels  charge  some  point  of  our  line 
nearly  every  night.  They  made  a  dreadful  assault  on 
the  Eighteenth  corps  last  night.  I  never  heard  so  ter 
rific  a  charge  before — it  could  only  be  beat  by  the  great 
noise  we  read  about  at  the  last  day.  We  have  got 
within  about  eight  miles  of  Richmond,  and  I  suppose  it 
will  be  a  long  time  before  we  gain  that  eight  miles.  But 
the  rebs  do  n't  seem  to  feel  satisfied  at  our  coming  so 
near,  and  there  will  be  desperate  fighting  until  we  get 
well  fortified,  which  is  going  rapidly  on,  and  our  lines 
come  very  near  together  now.  Spades  have  been 
trumps  all  the  way,  but  now  every  rod  of  it  must  be 
dug  through,  until  our  big  guns  can  vomit  their  over 
loaded  stomachs  into  the  doomed  city.  Everything  has 
been  taken  as  we  passed  along,  and  houses  ransacked, 
destroying  things  that  could  do  them  no  good,  even  to 
the  women's  scanty  clothing  and  the  bedding  and  furni 
ture,  while  the  women  looked  on  in  tears. 

Every  bit  of  corn,  every  hen  and  pig  and  cow  has 
been  killed  and  eaten,  every  mule  has  been  taken  along, 
and  in  the  wake  of  our  army  everything  has  been  deso 
lated.  We  have  dug  up  their  corn-fields  building  breast 
works,  also  their  wheat-fields.  The  wheat  was  well 
headed  out,  and  our  huge  droves  of  beeves  have  trodden 
it  all  down  ;  so  you  see  they  have  paid  for  their  seces 
sion.  Their  slaves  have  all  left  them ;  those  left  at 


43 2  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [June, 

home — men,  women,  and  children — have  followed  us. 
They  are  nearly  or  quite  ruined — but  still  they  fight  as 
only  demons  can,  and  but  for  our  great  numbers  they 
would  drive  us  from  their  soil.  We  have  had  to  go  into 
many  places  where  it  seemed  that  no  man  could  look 
and  live.  It  is  strange  how  men  can  become  so  accus 
tomed  to  death  and  danger  that  they  will  acknowledge 
neither,  and  walk  among  whizzing  bullets  as  though 
they  were  bees. 

June  7. — We  are  again  on  the  flank,  the  same  as  the 
day  before  our  battle  with  A.  P.  Hill.  We  straightened 
around  with  his  line  last  night  before  dark,  and  the  way 
the  old  logs  and  sticks  formed  into  line  of  battle  or 
breastworks  could  only  be  beaten  by  magic  or  light 
ning ;  but  we  have  not  had  a  chance  to  fight  behind 
them.  When  the  shells  come  over  we  get  up  close, 
and  we  can  keep  out  of  the  way  of  the  bullets,  which 
always  are  coming  more  or  less.  Men  are  sent  for 
ward  of  the  pits  from  five  to  thirty  rods,  according  to 
circumstances,  enough  to  cover  the  regiments  at  a  dis 
tance  of  five  or  six  steps  apart.  They  are  to  keep 
behind  trees,  or  whatever  they  can  cover  themselves 
with,  or  dig  a  small  pit  and  get  into  it.  The  rebs  do 
the  same  thing,  and  the  two  lines  of  videttes  or  skir 
mishers  keep  firing  at  each  other  at  every  chance,  and 
the  bullets  come  over  to  see  us  quite  often.  When  an 
advance  is  made  the  skirmishers  have  to  run  in,  after 
holding  their  ground  as  long  as  possible.  Many  are 
taken  prisoners,  on  both  sides,  in  this  way. 

The  main  line  remains  in  place  until  the  enemy  comes 
after  the  pickets  or  skirmishers,  and  when  they  get 
within  good  distance  then  comes  the  friendly  exchange 


1864.]        FROM  THE  NORTH  ANNA   TO  PETERSBURG.          433 

of  shot  for  shot.  At  night,  while  behind  the  breast 
works,  every  man  has  his  harness  on  ;  and  half  stand 
in  readiness  at  a  time,  while  the  others  lie  down  in 
their  places  like  big  dogs,  wet  or  dry,  with  rifle  at 
hand,  and  try  to  sleep  ;  and  there  is  not  much  trouble 
in  getting  to  sleep  as  sound  as  death  itself.  How  do 
you  suppose  our  clothes  look,  after  lying  in  rifle-pits, 
digging,  or  crawling  on  our  belly,  or  lying  flat  on  the 
plowed  ground,  during  thunder-showers  and  sunshine? 
Not  very  clean — no  chance  to  wash  a  garment  since 
Bristovv  Station  on  the  ist  of  May.  L-i-c-e  is  no  name 
for  the  gray-backed  vermin  that  flourish  on  our  wasting 
bodies ;  might  as  well  call  them  man-eaters.  Though 
disgusted  with  anything  that  looks  like  war,  and  weary 
and  worn  from  long  watching  and  exposure,  I  am  still 
the  same  Jim. 

June  9. — We  are  about  three  miles  from  Mechanics- 
ville,  and  eight  from  Richmond,  and  about  fifteen  from 
White  House  landing  on  the  Chickahominy.  That  is 
about  all  I  can  find  out  about  our  position,  and  as  there 
are  no  towns  in  slave  states,  it  is  hard  to  give  the 
locality.  We  must  be  on  the  north  or  east  side  of  the 
river,  and  I  suppose  it  is  in  Hanover  county,  but  don't 
know.  Freeman  [Lathe]  is  cooking,  and  is  worth 
three  common  men  for  that  place.  It  don't  matter 
how  many  bullets  are  flying,  he  always  comes  to  us 
with  his  kettles  of  hot  coffee  and  fresh  boiled  beef  once 
a  day-  But  the  coffee  comes  three  times,  and  I  don't 
see  how  we  could  live  without  it.  It  is  a  dangerous  job 
to  be  crawling  about  carrying  rations,  for  the  bullets  go 
everywhere  except  behind  our  breastworks,  and  some 
times  they  come  full  close  enough  there.  The  rebs 


434  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [June, 

generally  try  about  twice  every  night  to  break  our 
lines.  That  brings  every  man  to  his  place,  and  you 
ought  to  see  some  of  the  volleys  that  are  poured  after 
them. 


LETTERS    TO    MAJOR    CHANDLER. 
(Adjt.    William   /.    Brown.} 

IN  THE  FIELD. 

June  2. — On  the  3ist  [May]  the  regiment  made  an 
advance  and  drove  the  enemy  from  a  strong  position  and 
won  much  credit.  Loss  :  killed,  one  ;  wounded,  seven 
teen.  On  the  25th  had  five  wounded  skirmishing  on  the 
North  Anna.  Lieutenants  Sampson,  Perry,  and  Emery 
have  returned.  Captain  Hough  is  in  command,  and 
does  splendidly.  Buswell  is  still  present,  and  Lieuten 
ant  Case  is  acting  field  officer.  We  are  a  small  band 
now,  but  strong  and  effective.  Received  the  highest 
compliments  of  Colonel  Griffin  for  our  conduct  on  the 
3 1 st.  Advanced  with  no  support,  right,  left,  or  rear. 
Lieutenant-Colonel  Pearson  [Sixth  New  Hampshire] 
killed  on  the  26th  or  27th.  Heavy  loss  to  the  regiment 
and  brigade.  How  bad  is  Colonel  Babbitt's  wound? 
Captain  Little  is  on  the  way  here  now. 

COLD  HARBOR,  VA. 

June  n. — Yours  of  the  ist  instant  came  yesterday. 
There  has  been  no  fighting  along  the  lines  for  several 
days — our  works  are  being  strengthened — we  now  lie 
near  the  right  of  the  whole  line,  behind  rifle-pits.  Cap 
tains  Hough,  Cooper,  and  I  live  in  what  is  known  as 
Fort  Grant.  Captain  Hough  still  commands,  by  order 
of  Colonel  Griffin.  Captain  Whitfield  is  expected  back 


»**• 


ADJUTANT  WILLIAM  I.  BROWN. 


1864.]        FROM  THE  NORTH  ANNA   TO  PETERSBURG.          435 

— his  horse  had  his  leg  shot  off  the  other  day.  Bad 
luck  the  captain  has  with  horses  !  Rumor  says  that 
our  corps  is  going  to  South  Carolina — our  transporta 
tion  has  gone  to  White  House.  The  Eighteenth  corps, 
General  Baldi  Smith,  has  joined  us.  The  Second, 
Fourth,  Fifth,  Tenth,  and  Thirteenth  New  Hamp 
shire  are  here,  and  think  it  rather  a  rough  campaign. 
Grant  has  already  begun  to  dig  under  and  blow  up 
the  rebel  forts.  One  went  up  on  the  left  the  other 
day — am -expecting  every  moment  to  hear  the  explo 
sion  of  another  near  by,  which  is  nearly  ready.  It  is 
believed  that  General  Ewell,  with  1,500  prisoners,  has 
been  captured.  Went.  Butler  still  cooks  for  us. 
Nothing  has  been  said  or  done  about  detailed  waiters 
since  the  stir  at  Bristow,  and  I  don't  think  there  will 
be  again  at  present.  There  are  a  great  quantity  of 
waiters  and  cooks  now.  I  think  I  should  do  nothing 
about  Went.  If  you  do,  however,  I  shall,  of  course,  be 
willing  to  share  the  expense.  He  is  not  now  reported 
as  your  waiter.  Captain  Hough  wants  to  know  if  you 
get  any  "  robin  on  toast"  in  Concord.  Captain  Blais- 
dell  has  returned. 


WHAT   WAS    IN    FRONT    AT    TOLOPOTOMOY. 
By  Capt.  Edward  C.  Babb. 

An  order  came  to  us  in  the  morning  from  General 
Griffin,  to  report  to  him  at  once  where  he  was.  We 
found  him  on  a  level  piece  of  ground,  directly  in  front 
of  a  very  deep  ravine  which  was  thickly  covered  with 
timber  from  the  level  ground  down  as  far  as  we  could 
see.  General  Griffin  came  along  to  Captain  Hough  and 
gave  him  his  orders,  which  were  to  move  on  through 


436  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [June, 

this  ravine  and  find  out  what  there  was  in  front  of  us. 
The  position  was  regarded  as  so  dangerous  a  one  that 
General  Griffin  shook  hands  with  Captain  Hough  and 
said  "  Good-bye,  Captain  !  "  and  as  I  was  standing  close 
by  the  captain,  he  shook  hands  with  me  too. 

The  regiment  immediately  moved  down  one  side  of 
the  ravine,  and  then  up  a  little  way  on  the  opposite 
side.  From  there  we  could  see  quite  a  commotion  at 
the  top  of  the  hill,  where  there  seemed  to  be  a  sort  of 
a  clearing.  The  captain  gave  the  order  to  fire,  but 
before  it  could  be  executed  there  came  a  scattering  fire 
from  the  rebs  on  the  hill,  and  also  a  few  hand  grenades. 
Hough  waited  no  longer.  "Up,  boys,  and  at  them!" 
he  shouted,  and  at  the  word  we  jumped  up  the  hill  and 
actually  drove  out  what  would  make  more  than  a  bri 
gade  of  men,  and  took  possession  of  the  rifle-pits,  which 
were  built  in  semi-circular  form.  One  of  the  rebel  offi 
cers  tried  to  rally  his  men,  and  got  them  together 
enough  to  make  a  safe  retreat  across  the  field.  Captain 
Hough  immediately  sent  word  back  that  we  had  cap 
tured  the  line,  and  asked  that  troops  might  be  sent  at 
once  to  help  hold  it.  The  brigade  came  up  in  a  few 
minutes,  and  General  Griffin  came  over  and  thanked 
Captain  Hough  for  what  he  had  done,  and  compli 
mented  him  on  the  bravery  of  his  men. 


SOME    STRAY    SHOTS. 

Captain  Robinson. — While  we  were  at  North  Anna 
I  had  in  my  company  a  Portuguese  sailor  by  the  name 
of  Seino  Jacques.  He  had  been  taught  to  speak  a 
little  English,  and  one  day,  sitting  upon  the  breast- 


1864.]        FROM  THE  NORTH  ANNA   TO  PETERSBURG.          437 

works  that  we  had  thrown  up,  he  turned  around  to  his 
haversack,  which  contained  four  or  five  crackers  where 
he  was  supposed  to  have  three  days  rations,  looked 
sadly  at  it  for  a  moment,  and  said,  "Plentee  march 
— plentee  fight — plentee  reb — no  plentee  hard-tack!" 
Volumes  couldn't  have  expressed  the  situation  of 
affairs  more  completely. 

There  was  another  fellow  in  the  company,  named 
Leon  Saladal,  who  never  learned  to  speak  a  word  of 
English  while  he  was  with  us.  Saladal  spoke  Spanish, 
and  the  Portuguese  sailor  spoke  Spanish  and  French  in 
his  way,  but  only  a  little  English,  while  Joe  Provencher 
spoke  French  and  English.  So,  when  Saladal  wanted 
to  communicate  with  me,  he  spoke  to  the  Portuguese  in 
Spanish,  the  Portuguese  gave  it  to  Joe  in  French,  and 
Joe  gave  it  to  me  in  English ;  and  then  it  went  back 
by  the  same  circuitous  route  to  Saladal.  He  had  been 
a  cook  in  a  Spanish  galley,  and  the  cold  weather  was 
quite  hard  on  him,  but  he  was  very  faithful  to  his  duties, 
and  learned  to  go  through  the  manual  by  watching  the 
others.  At  Spottsylvania  he  got  separated  from  us,  and 
afterwards  brought  a  note  from  the  officer  of  another 
regiment,  saying  that  he  had  been  with  them  that  day 
and  had  behaved  well.  I  told  some  one  to  look  at  his 
gun  and  see  what  condition  it  was  in.  It  was  the  first 
action  he  had  been  in,  and  his  gun  was  full  of  charges. 
He  had  put  the  bullet  at  the  bottom  and  rammed  the 
powder  on  top  of  it,  and  had  kept  on  loading  till  he  got 
the  gun  full.  If  he  had  not  done  much  in  the  way  of 
execution,  he  had  certainly  shown  his  good  intentions. 

Captain  Copp. — One  day,  when  we  had  been  detailed 
on  the  skirmish   line,  my  company  was   stationed   in   a 


43$  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [June, 

place  where  the  woods  were  pretty  thick  with  under 
brush,  and  you  could  n't  see  a  great  ways  ahead.  But 
in  spite  of  this  protection  there  came  a  time  when  the 
bullets  were  skipping  in  pretty  close  to  us,  so  the  boys 
began  to  scoop  out  pits  for  themselves.  One  of  the  men, 
who  was  digging  a  hole  as  fast  as  he  could  with  his 
bayonet,  thought  he  heard  a  noise  on  the  other  side  of 
the  tree  just  in  his  front,  and  peeping  cautiously  around 
he  saw  a  rebel  on  the  other  side  diligently  at  work  dig 
ging  with  his  bayonet.  The  rebel  looked  up  at  the 
same  time,  but  it  was  rather  close  quarters  for  both  of 
them,  so  each  grabbing  his  musket  backed  out  of  sight 
of  the  other,  and  neither  one  spoke  a  word. 

The  day  that  the  regiment  acted  as  rear-guard  and 
guard  for  the  trains,  the  men  got  a  chance  to  do  a  little 
cooking,  though  we  did  n't  have  such  a  great  sight  to 
cook  at  that  particular  time.  The  boys  had  built  a  big 
fire  and  were  sitting  around  it,  and  I  remember  passing 
one  group  where  a  man  was  roasting  a  bit  of  pork.  He 
was  holding  it  up  to  the  fire,  twirling  it  round  on  a  stick, 
and  saying,  "  Fatting  to  kill,  boys;  fatting  to  kill."  It 
was  n't  half  an  hour  before  an  orderly  came  down  where 
we  were,  and  we  were  ordered  to  the  front  on  the  double- 
quick.  When  we  got  there  we  all  felt  as  if  we  were 
going  into  a  pretty  tough  place,  and  the  fellow  that  was 
roasting  the  pork  was  one  of  the  first  to  fall. 


THE    WAGON    TRAIN    AT    BETHESDA    CHURCH. 
By  Capt.  Edward  C.  Babb. 

We  had  come  down  the  hill,  and  were  trying  to  get 
across  the  road,  but  there  was  a  wagon  train  at  least  a 


1864.]        FROM  THE  NORTH  ANNA   TO  PETERSBURG.          439 

half  mile  long  in  possession  of  the  road,  and  the  teams 
kept  coming  on  the  jump  and  just  as  close  together  as 
possible.  There  was  a  very  cool  and  collected  looking 
man  on  horseback  waiting  by  the  side  of  the  road,  and 
by  and  by  Captain  Hough,  who  was  getting  impatient 
at  the  long  delay,  said  to  him  that  he  must  get  his  com 
mand  across  there  somehow,  and  that  he  did  n't  propose 
to  wait  much  longer  to  do  it  either.  "  Nowr  look  here," 
said  the  man  on  horseback,  "don't  you  be  in  such  a 
hurry  ;  1  know  where  you're  going  better  than  you  do  !" 
Well,  we  had  to  wait  till  that  wagon  train  got  past,  and 
then  it  transpired  that  the  man  on  horseback  was  Quar 
termaster  Ingalls.  After  this  we  pushed  on  very  hur 
riedly,  and  soon  passed  through  a  line  of  works  that 
was  held  by  Sykes's  regulars,  who  were  equipped  with 
repeating  rifles.  We  had  gone  on  but  a  short  distance 
when  the  enemy  opened  fire  on  the  line  we  had  just  left, 
and  though  we  were  perhaps  sixty  rods  away  we  got 
enough  of  their  shot  and  shells  to  make  our  position 
rather  a  risky  one.  The  regulars  soon  got  in  their  fire, 
however,  and  did  great  execution,  but  we  were  glad  to 
get  out  of  range. 


A  SHOT  THROUGH  THE  LUNG,  AND  WHAT  CAME  OF  IT. 
By  George  J.  Allen. 

When  the  regiment  was  engaged  near  Bethesda  church 
I  was  detailed  to  go  on  the  skirmish  line,  and  had  the 
right  of  the  line.  Charles  W.  Symonds  was  next  to 
me,  and  then  Byron  D.  Leighton,  we  three  being  Com 
pany  I  men.  All  the  rest  of  the  skirmishers,  so  far  as 
I  could  see,  were  protected  by  bushes,  but  I  was  five 
paces  away  from  where  the  bushes  ended.  I  stayed 


440  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [June, 

there,  however,  until  I  was  ordered  to  go  out  about 
two  rods,  to  where  there  was  a  small  tree.  This  was 
before  the  rebs  came  in  sight,  but  when  they  came  up 
they  caught  sight  of  me  at  once  and  began  firing. 
There  was  quite  a  party  of  them  in  a  small  house  just 
in  front  of  me,  and  another  body  oft'  to  the  right,  and 
between  the  two  of  them  the  balls  came  thick  and  fast, 
and  about  sundown  I  was  wounded.  My  pension  cer 
tificate  says:  "Wounds  of  throat  and  lung,  resulting 
in  total  disability,  such  as  to  render  incapacity  to  per 
form  manual  labor,  equivalent  to  the  loss  of  a  hand  or 
foot." 

The  ball  struck  me  about  an  inch  above  the  heart, 
went  in  between  two  ribs,  passed  through  the  lung,  and 
came  out  at  the  back.  The  shock  was  so  great  that 
it  whirled  me  half-way  around,  and  I  called  out  to 
Symonds  that  I  was  hurt,  and  started  to  go  back,  but 
could  not  walk.  Symonds  and  Leighton  came  out 
where  I  was,  and  carried  me  back  to  the  rifle-pits 
where  the  regiment  was.  They  laid  me  down,  and 
Symonds  turned  to  Leighton  and  said,  "  Come  on,  By, 
let 's  go  back  there  and  give  them  h — 1  for  this  !  "  I  was 
carried  to  the  rear  on  a  stretcher,  and  placed  on  a  pile 
of  straw  in  a  log  house,  and  lay  there,  suffering  terribly, 
till  long  after  dark.  Eleazer  Colburn,  who  was  one  of 
the  pioneers,  chanced  to  come  to  the  door,  and  hearing 
some  one  groaning,  asked  who  it  was.  I  told  him  what 
the  matter  was,  and  he  said  he  would  go  for  a  doctor. 
It  was  n't  long  before  he  came  back  with  some  men,  a 
stretcher,  and  a  torch,  and  they  took  me  to  the  field 
hospital,  where  I  stayed  till  the  next  morning. 

That  forenoon  I  was  put  in  an  ambulance  and  carried 
to  what  was  called  the  division  hospital,  and  lay  in  an 


1864.]        FROM  THE  NORTH  ANNA   TO  PETERSBURG.          441 

open  field,  with  a  lot  of  others,  all  day  in  the  burning 
sun.  It  was  some  time  the  next  day  that  a  surgeon  or 
nurse  put  something  over  my  wound,  but  did  not  cleanse 
it  at  all.  Late  that  afternoon  we  were  packed  and 
wedged  into  ambulances,  till  there  was  n't  room  to  turn 
the  least  bit,  and  started  for  White  House  landing.  It 
seemed  as  if  we  went  'cross-lots  all  night,  for  first  a 
wheel  would  sink  in  to  the  hub,  then  it  would  strike  a 
log  and  go  up ;  only  to  repeat  the  operation  over  and 
over  again,  until  I  thought  we  should  all  be  killed  sure. 
We  arrived  at  the  landing  in  the  afternoon,  but  the  boat 
that  was  being  loaded  was  then  so  full  that  the  captain 
refused  to  take  on  another  man.  So  the  ambulances 
were  driven  into  a  camp  near  by,  and  we  laid  in  them 
that  night. 

In  the  morning  a  man  from  the  Christian  commission 
brought  me  some  soup,  and  this  was  the  first  thing  I  had 
had  to  eat  since  I  was  wounded,  four  days  before.  A 
doctor  from  the  same  society  then  washed  and  dressed 
my  wound,  and  in  the  afternoon  we  were  put  on  board 
a  boat  for  transportation  to  Washington.  The  next  few 
months  were  full  of  pain  and  suffering  for  me,  but  with 
good  care  I  managed  to  pull  through,  though  my 
wound  was  not  fully  healed  before  the  I4th  of  Decem 
ber  of  that  year.  That  same  day  I  was  offered  a 
discharge  from  the  service,  but  this  I  refused,  pre 
ferring  to  serve  until  the  war  was  ended.  I  was 
detailed  as  a  nurse,  and  did  duty  till  the  following 
April,  when  I  began  to  spit  blood  and  had  to  go  to 
the  hospital,  spending  some  months  at  the  Lincoln 
hospital,  at  Washington,  and  the  Manchester  hos 
pital,  in  New  Hampshire. 

July    10,    1865,    I    was    finally    discharged    from    the 


44 2  NINTH  NE  W  HA MPSHIRE.  [June, 

service  at  Concord,  and  for  nearly  two  years  was  ill 
more  or  less  of  the  time,  coughing  and  raising  blood 
freely.  One  day  in  March,  1867,  nearly  three  years 
after  I  was  wounded,  I  was  taken  with  a  severe  cough 
ing  spell,  and  raised  a  piece  of  bone  half  an  inch  long, 
which  I  have  now.  The  doctor  said  it  was  a  piece  of 
rib,  and  had  been  carried  into  the  lung,  which  ex 
plained  the  coughing  and  bleeding  from  which  I  had 
so  long  suffered.  I  served  with  the  regiment  in  every 
engagement  up  to  the  time  I  was  wounded. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

FROM   THE    INVESTURE    OF  PETERSBURG   TO   THE  EX 
PLOSION  OF  THE  MINE. 

The  city  of  Petersburg,  which  lies  about  twenty-two 
miles  to  the  south  of  Richmond,  was  the  railroad  centre 
of  all  the  lines  save  one  that  afforded  communication 
between  the  Confederate  capital  and  its  bases  of  sup 
plies  in  the  south  and  south-west.  Could  this  position 
be  taken  and  securely  defended,  the  ultimate  downfall  of 
Richmond  and  of  the  Rebellion  was  assured  ;  and  it  was 
for  the  accomplishment  of  this  object  that  the  forces  of 
the  Army  of  the  Potomac  were  now  investing  the  city. 
Simultaneously  with  the  movement  of  Meade's  army 
against  the  southern  approaches  to  the  citadel,  Gen 
eral  Grant  had  arranged  a  series  of  attacks  from  the 
north  and  south-west,  together  with  the  bombardment 
of  Fort  Clinton,  which  defended  the  approach  up  the 
Appomattox,  by  the  forces  under  Butler,  then  at  Ber 
muda  Hundreds.  Through  a  multiplicity  of  fatalities 
the  combination  had  failed,  and  the  decided  advantage 
gained  in  a  second  assault, — this  time  on  the  north 
eastern  defences,  by  the  Eighteenth  corps  under  Smith 
— on  the  I5th  of  June,  had  not  been  followed  up,  and 
with  this  fatal  hesitation  the  golden  opportunity  passed. 

Up  to  the  time  of  this  latter  movement  General  Lee 
had  not  fully  comprehended  the  purpose  of  the  Union 
commander-in-chief;  but  that  once  divined,  he  was 
prompt  to  act.  By  the  afternoon  of  the  i6th  the 


444  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [June, 

greater  part  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  was  on  the 
field ;  but  Lee  was  there,  too,  with  his  van  of  iron- 
sided  veterans,  and  Smith  began  to  realize  that  his 
twelve  hours  delay  had  indefinitely  postponed  the  fall 
of  the  walls  that  had  seemed  so  imminent  only  the 
night  before.  The  original  plan  of  attack,  as  mapped 
out  by  General  Meade,  contemplated  an  advance  as 
early  as  four  o'clock  in  the  afternoon  of  the  i6th,  but 
it  was  fully  two  hours  later  when  the  assaulting  column 
— consisting  of  Barlow's  division  of  Hancock's  corps, 
supported  by  the  Second  brigade  of  the  Second  divi 
sion  of  the  Ninth  corps — moved  on  the  enemy's  works. 
Advancing  under  a  heavy  skirmish  fire,  the  brigade  suc 
ceeded  in  securing  a  few  of  the  first  line  of  rifle-pits 
before  night  came  on,  and  any  further  attempt  to  carry 
the  place  by  assault  was  put  off  until  the  early  morning 
of  the  lyth. 

It  was  decided  that  the  Second  division  of  the  Ninth 
corps,  supported  by  the  First,  should  lead  in  the  assault, 
and  the  post  of  honor  as  well  as  danger  was  given  to 
the  Second  brigade,  whose  commander,  General  Griffin, 
was  also  charged  with  the  execution  of  the  attack.  The 
plan  proposed  was  a  bold  one,  but  General  Burnside 
thought  the  results  which  it  promised  well  worth  the 
venture.  The  enemy  had  established  his  head-quarters 
on  the  Shand  estate,  in  a  house  which,  fronting  east, 
was  situated  near  the  extremity  of  a  point  of  land  formed 
by  two  brooks  coursing  through  deep  and  narrow  ravines 
and  converging  about  twenty  rods  to  the  north  of  the 
house.  Behind  the  house,  in  an  orchard  of  peach  trees, 
was  a  battery  of  four  guns  :  to  the  south,  and  on  slightly 
higher  ground,  was  a  redan,  with  two  guns  planted 
where  an  enfilading  fire  could  be  poured  through  the 


1864.]  THE  IN  VESTURE  OF  PETERSBURG.  445 

ravine  which  ran  along  the  eastern  front,  the  inner  or 
western  bank  of  the  ravine  being  defended  by  a  strong 
line  of  breastworks.  An  unobserved  approach  through 
the  eastern  ravine,  a  sudden  dash  up  its  steep  side,  a 
sweeping  charge  over  the  breastworks,  and  the  enemy's 
line  will  be  broken,  and  he  will  be  compelled  to  abandon 
the  ground  which  he  has  clung  to  so  tenaciously. 

It  is  past  midnight  when  the  attacking  column  slowly 
and  stealthily  winds  its  way  along  the  bed  of  the  ravine. 
It  is  composed  of  Griffin's  and  Curtin's  brigades  of  the 
Second  division, — the  former  with  the  Seventeenth  Ver 
mont,  the  Eleventh  New  Hampshire,  and  the  Thirty- 
second  Maine  in  the  front  line,  supported  by  the  Sixth 
and  Ninth  New  Hampshire,  the  Thirty-first  Maine,  and 
Second  Maryland ;  the  latter  with  the  Forty-fifth  and 
Forty-eighth  Pennsylvania  and  Thirty-sixth  Massachu 
setts  in  front,  and  the  Seventh  Rhode  Island,  Second 
New  York  rifles,  and  Fifty-eighth  Massachusetts  in  the 
rear.  Everything  has  been  carefully  arranged  and 
explained  beforehand,  each  man  knows  what  is 
expected  of  him,  that  the  fate  of  the  whole  affair 
hangs  on  a  strict  obedience  to  orders,  and  not  a  sound 
breaks  the  stillness  of  the  night  as  they  take  their  places 
and  in  silence  await  the  signal  to  advance. 

It  is  a  glorious  night.  Overhead,  sailing  serenely 
through  the  blue  expanse  of  the  heavens,  is  a  full 
moon  that  floods  the  earth  with  her  soft  but  radiant 
light ;  before  and  behind  the  little  band  of  silent 
watchers,  armed  hosts  are  sleeping,  and  the  minutes 
seem  like  hours  as  they  keep  their  lonely  vigil.  At 
quarter-past  three  the  first  faint  streaks  of  light  begin 
to  appear  in  the  east,  and  the  time  for  action  has  come. 
"Ready!"  is  the  word  that  passes  from  man  to  man, 


446  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [June, 

and  then,  like  a  huge  wave  gathering  its  strength  for  a 
mighty,  onsetting,  irresistible  sweep  along  the  shore, 
the  men  spring  to  their  feet,  and  noiselessly,  swiftly, 
powerfully,  hurl  themselves  upon  the  sleeping  foe. 
Griffin's  brigade  bears  to  the  right,  Curtin's  to  the  left, 
and  covering  fully  a  mile  of  the  enemy's  front  in  their 
operations,  sweep  everything  before  their  victorious 
advance.  There  are  but  a  few  stray  shots  from  the 
pickets,  the  big  guns  of  the  battery  and  redan  flash 
forth  a  last  defiance,  there  is  a  volley  of  musketry 
from  the  startled  soldiers,  as  wildly  aimed  as  it  proves 
ineffectual, — and  it  is  all  over,  and  to  the  victors  belong 
the  spoils.  Four  guns,  a  quantity  of  small  arms  and 
ammunition,  and  four  stands  of  colors  change  owners, 
the  prisoners  number  six  hundred  and  fifty,  and  the 
gallant  Ninth  corps  has  added  yet  another  leaf  to  its 
laurels. 

Every  foot  of  ground  that  could  be  covered  by  the  at 
tacking  column  had  been  carried,  and  so  quickly  that 
the  support  had  not  yet  come  up  ;  when  it  did  arrive  the 
time  for  a  further  advance  had  gone  by,  and  all  that 
General  Potter  could  do  was  to  secure  the  safety  of  the 
new  position.  Shortly  after  noon  Hartranft's  and  Christ's 
brigades  of  the  Third  division  of  the  Ninth  corps  were 
ordered  in ;  the  former,  while  making  a  most  gallant 
advance  under  a  fire  so  keen  that  the  men  went  down  in 
swaths,  being  compelled  to  withdraw  with  only  a  rem 
nant  of  his  brave  troops,  and  the  latter — more  fortunate, 
though  losing  almost  as  heavily — securing  a  lodgment 
and  holding  his  ground  in  spite  of  all  efforts  the  enemy 
could  bring  to  bear.  Later  in  the  afternoon,  the  First 
division  attacking,  a  number  of  rifle-pits  were  carried, 
and  another  hundred  of  prisoners  and  a  stand  of  colors 


1864.]  THE  IN  VESTURE  OF  PETERSBURG.  447 

were  added  to  the  trophies  of  the  day.  But  at  what 
fearful  cost !  The  burden  of  that  day  of  fire  and  blood 
had  been  borne  by  the  Ninth  corps,  and  the  dead  and 
wounded  were  numbered  by  thousands,  the  heaviest  loss 
being  in  Hartranft's  brigade,  which,  going  into  action 
with  eighteen  hundred  and  fifty  officers  and  men,  num 
bered  only  eleven  hundred  fit  for  duty  at  its  close. 

Cheered  by  the  victories,  and  undaunted  by  the  losses, 
General  Grant  ordered  an  assault  all  along  the  line  for 
the  i8th.  During  the  night  of  the  i7th  Lee  withdrew 
his  forces  to  a  position  nearer  the  city  :  the  tremendous 
pressure  was  beginning  to  tell,  and  the  circle  was  slowly 
but  surely  narrowing.  Four  in  the  morning  was  the 
hour  set  for  the  opening  of  the  attack,  and  at  the  ap 
pointed  time  the  Third  division  of  the  Ninth  corps  was 
placed  in  the  van,  supported  by  Crawford's  division  of 
the  Fifth.  The  enemy  had  fallen  back  to  a  piece  of 
woods,  behind  which  was  a  deep  cut  traversed  by  the 
Norfolk  railroad.  Slowly  but  steadily  the  Union  forces 
gained  the  ground,  and  almost  foot  by  foot  the  enemy 
was  pushed  back — back  through  the  woods  to  the  ravine, 
from  the  ravine  itself;  and  the  roadbed  of  the  railroad 
was  utilized  by  the  victors  for  the  breastworks  with 
which  they  quickly  fortified  the  position  they  had  ac 
quired. 

It  was  not  until  afternoon  that  the  entire  army  was 
ordered  in,  but  though  everything  was  done  that  brave 
men  could  do,  it  was  impossible  to  break  the  enemy's 
line  at  any  point,  and  with  the  coming  of  night  hostili 
ties  ceased.  In  the  mean  time,  however,  General  Will- 
cox,  following  up  the  success  of  the  morning,  had 
advanced  his  front  line  well  across  the  railroad,  in  the 
direction  of  the  Jerusalem  plank-road,  and  was  now 


448  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [June, 

securely  established  within  one  hundred  and  twenty-five 
yards  of  the  enemy's  works, -a  position  that  became  the 
salient  point  of  the  Union  lines  in  the  wearisome  days  and 
months  that  followed ;  and  one  that  was  dearly  bought, 
for  when  the  day  had  come  to  an  end  only  a  thousand 
men  were  left  in  the  ranks.  The  Second  and  Third 
divisions  were  thoroughly  deserving  of  the  encomium 
bestowed  on  them  by  General  Burnside,  who  stated  in  his 
report  that  "  no  better  fighting  has  been  done  during  the 
war  than  was  done  by  the  divisions  of  Generals  Potter 
and  Willcox  during  this  attack." 

A  loss  of  nearly  10,000  men  between  the  dates  of  June 
10  and  20,  was  sufficient  demonstration  that  Petersburg 
was  not  to  be  carried  by  direct  assault,  and  could  only  be 
reduced  by  the  slow  process  of  a  siege.  An  attempt  to 
turn  the  enemy's  right  flank  by  cutting  or  holding  the 
Weldon  railroad,  which  lay  to  the  left  and  nearly  parallel 
with  the  Jerusalem  plank-road,  resulting  in  a  three  days 
struggle,  from  the  2ist  to  the  23d,  was  successful  in  mod 
erately  extending  the  left  of  the  Union  line,  but  4,000 
more  men  were  gone,  the  most  of  them  having  been  taken 
prisoners,  a  fate  which  was  beginning  to  be  regarded  as 
less  merciful  than  death  itself.  Mortal  men  could  endure 
no  more,  for  the  troops  were  completely  exhausted  by 
the  long  strain  to  which  they  had  been  subjected  since 
leaving  the  Rapidan.  Those  seven  weeks  had  been  filled 
to  the  very  brim  with  hard  marching  and  harder  fighting, 
and  it  is  almost  imposssible  to  comprehend  the  immense 
amount  of  energy,  persistency,  and  endurance,  that  had 
been  expended ;  except  it  be  considered  in  connection 
with  the  thousands  of  killed,  wounded,  and  missing  men. 

The  siege  of  Petersburg  once  settled  upon,  General 
Grant  decided  to  place  the  Army  of  the  James  on  the 


1864.]  THE  IN  VESTURE  OF  PETERSBURG.  449 

north,  and  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  on  the  south,  side 
of  the  James  river,  so  as  to  threaten  Richmond  above 
the  James  simultaneously  with  the  movement  against 
Petersburg  from  the  south.  The  right  of  the  line  of  the 
Army  of  the  Potomac  was  near  enough  to  the  city  to 
admit  of  siege  operations,  while  the  position  held  by  the 
Ninth  corps — not  far  from  the  centre  of  the  line — was 
within  four  hundred  feet  of  the  enemy's  most  advanced 
work.  Accordingly,  intrenchments  were  extended  and 
strengthened,  batteries  were  placed  in  position,  and  the 
soldiers  settled  down  to  a  period  of  theoretic  rest — to  lie 
all  day  in  the  trenches  under  a  burning  sun,  where  to  show 
your  head  meant  a  shot  from  the  enemy's  sharpshooters  ; 
rest — with  the  dull,  thunderous  booming  of  the  cannon 
sounding  in  your  ears  by  day  and  by  night :  and  this  not 
for  one,  two,  or  three  days,  but  for  long,  weary,  heart- 
sickening  weeks  and  months. 

When  the  enemy,  hard  pressed  by  the  sturdy  veterans 
of  the  Ninth  corps,  withdrew  from  the  vicinity  of  the 
Shand  house,  he  established  himself  in  a  strong  redoubt 
at  the  foot  of  "Cemetery"  hill,  a  point  projecting  be 
yond  his  average  front  and  lying  directly  opposite  a  cor 
responding  advance  of  the  Union  lines.  This  redoubt 
was  the  keystone  of  the  enemy's  strength,  and  seemed  to 
be  the  only  feasible  point  of  attack.  It  was  a  bold  spirit 
who  could  think  of  carrying  this  fortress ;  but  that  once 
done,  and  the  crest  of  the  hill  that  loomed  up  in  its 
rear  secured,  Petersburg  must  fall,  and  that  with  heavy 
loss  to  its  defenders  ;  and  there  was  one  man  who  be 
lieved  such  a  plan  could  be  carried  out. 

Lieutenant-Colonel  Henry  Pleasants,  commanding  the 
Forty-eighth  Pennsylvania,  was  the  man.  Himself  a 
practical  miner,  and  skilful  engineer,  the  idea  of  tunnel- 


XXIX 


450  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [June, 

ling  under  the  intervening  space  between  the  lines,  and 
blowing  up  the  fort — suggested  by  the  talk  of  his  men, 
who  were  mostly  miners  from  the  coal  regions  of  the 
Schuylkill,  as  they  sat  around  the  camp-fires  when  their 
turn  at  relief  came — struck  him  as  being  both  practicable 
and  possible.  He  consulted  with  General  Potter,  who  in 
turn  laid  the  matter  before  General  Burnside,  and  he, 
after  a  careful  investigation  of  the  proposed  plan  of  oper 
ations,  ordered  Pleasants  to  go  ahead  with  his  mine. 
General  Meade,  however,  on  being  informed  of  the 
project,  was  not  disposed  to  believe  in  its  practicability, 
though  he  finally  gave  it  his  official  sanction. 

But  the  trust  of  his  division  and  corps  commanders  was 
sufficient  encouragement  to  Colonel  Pleasants  to  induce 
him  to  go  on  with  the  work.  Operations  were  begun  at 
high  noon  on  the  25th  of  June,  and  so  earnestly  and  per- 
severingly  did  his  men  devote  themselves  to  their  task, 
that  in  spite  of  improvised  tools,  and  discouragements 
and  difficulties  of  all  sorts  and  kinds,  by  the  23d  of  July 
a  T-shaped  gallery* — the  main  shaft  five  hundred  and 
ten  and  eight  tenths  feet,  and  the  laterals  thirty-seven  and 
thirty-eight  feet,  in  length — was  in  readiness  for  the 
powder.  Eight  magazines,  each  containing  about  a 
thousand  pounds  of  powder,  were  distributed  along  the 
side  galleries,  and  were  connected  by  three  lines  of  fuses. 
Everything  was  in  readiness  for  the  explosion  of  the 
mine  by  six  o'clock  in  the  afternoon  of  the  28th  of  July. 


DAY    BY    DAY. 

Hardly  one  hundred  and  twenty-five  men  could  be 
mustered  in  the  ranks  of  the  Ninth  New  Hampshire  at 
the  time  of  their  arrival  before  Petersburg,  about  the 


1864.]  THE  INVESTURE  OF  PETERSBURG.  451 

middle  of  the  afternoon  of  the  sixteenth  day  of  June  ; 
nor  were  there  a  thousand  men,  all  told,  in  the  seven  reg 
iments  which,  including  the  Ninth,  made  up  the  Second 
brigade.  The  fatigue  attendant  on  the  forced  march 
from  the  James  river  during  the  previous  night  and  the 
early  morning,  had  told  severely  on  the  endurance  of  the 
men  :  but  the  time  for  action  had  come, — a  time  when 
mere  feeling  is  lost  in  the  stir  and  rush  and  tumult  of 
battle  array.  There  was  only  a  brief  interval  before  the 
brigade  was  ordered  in  as  support  to  General  Barlow's 
division  of  the  Second  corps,  which  had  been  detailed  to 
lead  in  a  charge  on  the  redoubt  and  breastworks  which 
defended  the  southern  and  eastern  sides  of  the  Shand 
house. 

The  attack  was  made  about  six  o'clock,  but  little  was 
accomplished  beyond  the  securing  of  a  few  of  the  ene 
my's  rifle-pits,  though  a  sharp  skirmish  fire  was  main 
tained  on  both  sides  as  long  as  the  daylight  lasted.  The 
regimental  loss  in  this  charge  was  very  light,  perhaps  as 
close  a  call  as  any  being  that  of  Sergeant  Burnham's, 
whose  characteristic  good  fortune  had  heretofore  been 
proof  against  the  enemy's  bullets ;  but  his  diary  record 
for  this  day  reads, — "I  got  hit  on  my  knapsack  strap,  a 
little  above  the  heart,  by,  as  I  suppose,  a  small  ball  from 
an  exploding  shell.  The  strap  was  very  thick  and  hard, 
and  the  shot  glanced  off,  but  it  gave  me  a  sharp  blow, 
and  a  patch  of  flesh  under  the  strap,  and  as  large  as  the 
palm  of  my  hand,  was  4  black  and  blue,'  and  quite  sore 
for  several  days  afterwards." 

Soon  after  dark  the  brigade  was  sent  by  regiments 
into  the  ravine  which  skirted  the  front  of  the  Shand 
house,  the  Ninth  occupying  a  position  immediately  in 
front  of  the  house  and  hardly  fifty  paces  from  it  and  the 


452  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [June, 

Confederate  line  of  works.  Though  close  to  danger,  the 
men  were  so  fatigued  that  during  the  early  hours  of  the 
night  some  of  them  even  managed  to  sleep  a  little,  for 
the  extreme  heat  of  the  night  was  rendered  much  more 
oppressive  by  the  enforced  stillness  demanded  by  their 
advanced  position.  With  the  coming  of  the  first  faint 
tokens  of  the  morning,  however,  every  man  was  on  the 
alert,  and  as  the  word  to  advance  was  passed  along  the 
lines,  anticipation  of  the  work  before  them  tightened  the 
grip  on  the  musket. 

Orders  had  been  issued  that  the  works  were  to  be  car 
ried  if  possible  by  a  bayonet  charge,  and  in  the  thick 
darkness  of  the  ravine  the  ranks  of  bristling  steel  were 
softened  by  the  faint  shimmers  of  moonlight  that  sifted 
through  the  tree-tops.  Silently,  yet  swiftly,  the  long, 
dark  line  rises  above  the  bank  and  sweeps  down  upon 
the  unsuspecting  and  sleeping  foe.  So  sudden  has  been 
the  onset  that  the  enemy  make  but  little  resistance,  and 
there  is  very  little  bloodshed  on  either  side,  while  the 
reward  for  valor  far  outshines  the  risk.  The  Second 
brigade,  with  its  force  of  less  than  a  thousand  men,  has 
carried  the  earthworks  in  its  front,  and  has  captured 
about  four  hundred  prisoners,  including  fifteen  officers, 
together  with  the  colors  of  the  Fifty-third  Tennessee  and 
three  guns  of  the  Baltimore  light  artillery,  an  exploit  of 
which  they  may  well  be  proud. 

This  ended  active  movements  for  the  Ninth  New 
Hampshire  for  the  day,  though  they  were  detailed  to 
occupy  the  front  line  for  some  little  time  after  the  charge. 
On  being  relieved  they  were  ordered  back  to  the  shelter 
of  the  ravine,  and  rested  quietly  during  the  day  and  the 
following  night.  The  casualties  of  the  regiment  in  this 
charge  counted  up  fifteen  wounded,  a  few  of  them  mor- 


1 864.]  THE  INVES  TURK  OF  PE  TERSE  URG.  453 

tally.  On  the  morning  of  the  i8th  it  was  found  that  the 
enemy's  lines  had  been  drawn  in  nearer  the  city,  and 
during  the  day  the  Union  forces  were  advanced  close  up 
to  the  new  position.  The  Ninth,  with  its  division,  was 
stationed  in  the  edge  of  a  pine  forest,  having  been 
detailed  as  support  to  the  batteries  which  occupied  the 
front  line,  now  only  about  a  mile  outside  the  city  limits. 
This  position  was  near  enough  to  the  enemy's  works  to 
get  the  benefit  of  not  a  few  stray  shots,  the  day's  record 
showing  a  half  dozen  wounded  in  this  way, — two  of 
them,  in  Company  A,  being  from  the  same  shot. 

About  midnight  the  regiment  advanced  to  an  open 
field  in  the  front,  and  before  morning  were  snugly 
ensconced  behind  a  line  of  rifle-pitr;,  where  they  lay 
close  through  the  day.  The  heavy  skirmish  line  had 
been  pushed  still  farther  forward,  and  were  kept  busily 
at  work,  but  the  Ninth  had  only  to  keep  quiet  and  be 
ready  for  emergencies.  Early  in  the  morning  there  was 
a  little  episode  that  for  a  time  threatened  to  make  the 
situation  anything  but  a  safe  one.  Away  to  the  right, 
and  nearly  enfilading  the  position,  was  a  Confederate 
battery,  whose  guns  were  at  once  turned  on  such  a  capi 
tal  bit  of  target  practice.  The  first  shell  was  out  of 
range,  and  skipped  along  some  rods  behind  ;  the  next 
came  much  nearer,  and  the  boys  began  to  feel  a  trifle 
nervous  ;  they  almost  held  their  breath  in  anticipation  of 
what  the  third  shot  might  bring  in  its  wake,  but  unknown 
to  them  the  tables  had  been  turned.  Captain  Durell's 
battery  of  six  pieces  was  in  the  edge  of  the  woods  just 
behind  the  Ninth,  and  the  next  sound  that  greeted  their 
listening  ears  was  a  full  broadside  from  his  guns.  Six 
shells  struck  under  and  around  the  enemy's  single  gun, 
and  exploding  simultaneously,  practically  demolished 


454  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [July, 

the  earthworks,  dismounted  the  gun,  and  effectually  dis 
posed  of  the  bystanders.  It  was  a  pretty  piece  of  work, 
and  the  boys  voiced  their  thanks  in  a  hearty  cheer,  for 
they  felt  sure  they  had  nothing  further  to  fear  in  that 
direction.  The  next  two  days  were  passed  in  the  same 
position,  but  on  the  night  of  the  2ist  the  Ninth,  with  its 
brigade,  was  relieved,  and  moved  back  into  the  woods. 

This  was  the  commencement  of  a  two  months  life  in 
the  Petersburg  trenches,  a  life  whose  days  and  nights 
passed  in  monotonous  repetition.  Every  other  two  days 
the  men  were  in  the  pits,  the  most  of  the  time  immedi 
ately  in  front  of  the  fort  that  was  being  undermined. 
The  remainder  of  the  time  they  were  nominally  in  camp, 
but  this  really  meant  that  they  lay  in  reserve  in  the 
woods,  though  not  even  then  so  far  from  the  front  but 
that  stray  shell  and  bullets  were  every  now  and  then 
dropping  among  them,  occasionally  inflicting  wounds, 
or  even  launching  at  once  their  unfortunate  victims  into 
eternity.  At  the  front  a  continual  skirmish  fire  was  kept 
up,  to  cover  the  digging  of  the  mine,  and  the  days  that 
the  regiment  occupied  the  pits  were  invariably  accompa 
nied  by  the  disabling  or  killing  of  one  or  more  men. 
Among  these  were  Captains  Buswell  and  Little,  the  lat 
ter  being  badly  wounded  in  the  foot  on  July  3,  and  the 
former  mortally  wounded  on  the  22d. 

Though  the  duty  now  required  of  the  men  was  in  some 
respects  easier  than  that  of  a  month  and  a  half  previous, 
and  their  rations,  which  from  the  Rapidan  to  Petersburg 
had  consisted  of  hard-tack,  fresh  beef,  and  coffee,  in 
wearisome  monotony,  were  now  improved  by  the  addi 
tion  of  soft  bread,  salt  meats,  and  an  occasional  treat  of 
fresh  fruit  or  vegetables  from  the  government  or  the  San 
itary  commission,  yet  the  constant  exposure  to  the  suffo- 


1 864.]  THE  INVES TURE  OF  PE  TERSE URG.  455 

eating  dust  and  heat  in  those  broiling  sand-pits,  the  lack 
of  sleep,— only  snatches  of  which,  on  three  nights  out 
of  every  four,  could  be  obtained,  and  was  nearly  impos 
sible  during  the  day,  by  reason  of  the  heat  and  the 
innumerable  swarms  of  flies — the  scarcity  of  good  water, 
and  the  constant  anxiety  and  danger,  broke  down  even 
the  bravest  and  strongest  in  the  regiment,  sending  them 
into  the  hospitals,  from  which  many  never  returned. 

Day  after  day,  with  ever-lessening  ranks  they  besieged 
a  brave  and  determined  foe;  returning  from  a  brief  res 
pite,  that  same  foe  confronted  them  ;  each  morning  there 
were  some  missing  who  had  been  in  the  ranks  the  pre 
vious  day,  and  the  men  finally  ceased  to  ask  who  would 
be  the  next  to  fall,  and  only  vaguely  wondered  whether 
any  would  survive  to  see  the  end  of  the  struggle,  for  the 
rows  of  new-made  graves  were  daily  growing  longer, — 
the  graves  where  the  comrades  were  laid  to  rest  without 
coffin  or  shroud,  save  the  consecrated  uniform  of  blue. 

"  Few  and  short  were  the  prayers  we  said, 

And  spoke  not  a  word  of  sorrow ; 
But  steadfastly  gazed  on  the  face  of  the  dead, 
And  bitterly  thought  of  the  morrow." 


ALONG  WITH  THE  COLORS. 

By  Sergt.  Newell  T.  Dutton. 

I  shall  never  forget  the  march  from  the  James  river  to 
Petersburg,  during  the  night  of  June  15-16.  We  made 
the  thirty  miles  in  fifteen  hours'  marching  time.  When 
we  bivouacked  for  breakfast  at  six  o'clock,  Ned  Parsons 
and  myself  with  the  colors,  and  three  men  to  make  a 
stack  of  arms  to  rest  them  against,  represented  the  regi- 


456  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [June, 

ment ;  but  the  rest  soon  came  up,  and  we  pushed  on  for 
the  front.  On  the  night  of  the  i6th,  while  lying  on  the 
ground  in  position  for  the  charge  next  morning,  we  were 
so  near  the  enemy's  works  as  to  feel  the  breath  of  the 
guns  when  fired.  Lieutenant  Emery  and  myself  were 
hugging  the  ground  within  a  foot  of  each  other,  and  a 
bullet  struck  the  ground  full  force  between  our  heads. 
Each  thought  the  other  hit,  and  both  jumped  up  to  find 
if  it  were  so.  In  the  morning,  when  the  charge  was 
made,  the  boys  found  a  goose-pen  near  the  Shand  house, 
and  the  squawking  of  geese  mingled  with  the  last  rifle 
shots  and  the  cheers  of  victory. 

Sunday,  the  ipth,  we  lay  in  the  pits  in  the  broiling 
sun.  An  apple  tree  just  to  the  rear  promised  shelter, 
and  three  of  us  scooped  out  a  hole  and  got  into  it.  Dur 
ing  the  day  a  friend  from  a  neighboring  battery  called, 
and  the  four  of  us  sat  around  the  sides  of  the  pit,  with 
heads  ducked  close  as  possible.  Presently  a  sharpshooter 
sent  a  bullet  with  such  precision  of  aim  that  it  cut  the 
wire  of  the  fatigue  cap  which  the  battery  man  wore. 
He  fell  forward,  and  we  thought  him  killed,  but  he 
picked  himself  up,  and  we  all  got  back  into  the  open 
trenches  again.  It  was  a  close  call. 

That  night  there  was  so  little  room  in  the  trenches, 
that  in  order  for  all  to  get  in  we  had  to  lie  heads  to 
feet,  like  sardines  in  a  box.  I  placed  my  colors  back  of 
me,  so  if  anything  happened  in  the  night  I  could  easily 
lay  my  hands  upon  them.  All  at  once  there  came  the 
fierce  rebel  yell,  and  a  column  of  men  were  leaping  over 
the  breastworks  upon  us.  I  jumped  up,  seized  my  colors, 
and  ran  back  a  couple  of  rods  before  I  was  fairly  awake. 
It  was  only  a  dream,  but  so  realistic  that  to  this  day  I  can 
see  those  men  and  hear  them  veil. 


1864.]  THE  INVESTURE  OF  PETERSBURG.  457 

The  front  line,  where  for  nearly  two  months  we  spent 
every  other  forty-eight  hours,  was  a  most  trying  place. 
The  pit  was  widened  out  by  throwing  the  dirt  backward 
as  well  as  forward,  so  as  to  give  more  room  for  the  men 
to  move  about.  It  was  six  feet  wide  by  six  feet  deep  from 
the  top  of  the  parapet,  and  traverses  were  cut  through  the 
dirt  thrown  back,  so  that  we  could  pass  into  the  pit  with 
out  exposure.  The  sight  of  even  a  rag  always  brought 
a  rebel  bullet,  and  the  least  exposure  meant  wounds  or 
death.  Some  days  the  heat  was  intense  and  almost  unen 
durable,  and  we  were  much  like  beans  in  a  bean-hole — 
well  baked.  Sand-bags  had  to  be  constantly  replaced 
upon  the  parapet  in  front,  as  the  Johnnies  would  aim  to 
strike  the  top,  with  the  hope  that  the  bullet  would  glance 
into  the  pit.  As  the  firing  was  constantly  kept  up,  we 
were  continually  covered  with  sand,  and  we  could  scarcely 
eat  a  meal  or  drink  our  coffee  without  getting  it  dusted. 

Just  over  the  breastworks  stood  a  tree  six  or  eight 
inches  in  diameter,  which  in  time  was  wholly  shot 
away,  and  many  a  bullet  glancing  from  the  tree  into 
the  pit  was  the  cause  of  wounds  and  death.  I  was 
standing  just  at  the  rear  of  the  pit  one  day,  when  a 
bullet  struck  the  tree,  glanced  to  the  ground,  and 
glancing  the  second  time  struck  me  with  spent  force 
on  the  thigh.  Alvin  Richards  was  lying  on  his  back 
one  morning  in  the  pit,  sound  asleep,  when  a  piece — as 
large  as  the  palm  of  the  hand — of  a  shell  that  was  fired 
from  one  of  our  guns  and  burst  prematurely,  struck  him 
exactly  over  the  heart  and  killed  him  instantly.  The 
lines  were  so  near  that  we  could  throw  out  no  pickets, 
and  so  had  to  be  constantly  on  the  alert.  When  in  line 
we  stood  close  together,  one  or  two  men  deep.  One  half 
the  force  was  always  on  duty,  and  from  two  to  six  o'clock 


458  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [June, 

in  the  morning  and  about  nine  o'clock  in  the  evening — 
the  times  when  attacks  were  most  likely  to  be  made — the 
whole  force  was  kept  ready  for  action. 

It  was  severe  service,  and  we  were  always  glad  to  be 
relieved  and  go  to  the  rear,  though  this  was  only  partial 
relief.  It  was  hardly  a  mile  away,  and  many  stray  bul 
lets  came  to  us  as  messengers  of  wounds  and  death.  We 
were  continually  harassed  by  these  missiles,  as  well  as  by 
shells  from  a  small  dog  or  mortar  battery  of  two  guns. 
These  were  dropped  upon  us  every  day.  Usually  the 
explosion  of  the  guns  would  be  a  signal  for  the  men  to 
be  on  the  alert;  but  not  hearing  that,  the  shells  would  all 
too  frequently  be  a  most  unwelcome  surprise.  One 
night,  as  I  sat  on  the  ground  drinking  my  coffee,  twro 
shells  struck,  a  rod  or  so  apart,  on  either  side  of  me. 
One  was  buried  in  the  ground  and  did  not  burst,  the 
other  exploded  as  it  struck,  but  I  flung  myself  back 
wards,  prone  upon  the  ground,  and  was  not  injured. 

One  day  two  men  were  lying  on  their  backs  under  a 
piece  of  shelter  tent  tied  to  four  stakes,  looking  at  the 
pictures  of  a  Harper's  Weekly,  which  they  held  between 
them.  A  shell  fell  through  the  tent,  buried  itself  in  the 
ground  between  them,  and  burst.  One  of  the  men 
escaped  entirely  unharmed,  the  other  had  the  flesh 
badly  torn  from  the  calf  of  his  leg.  Under  a  volcano 
caused  by  the  explosion  of  a  twenty-five  pound  shell, 
it  was  a  miracle  that  both  were  not  blown  to  pieces. 

Every  day  brought  but  a  repetition  of  such  scenes.  It 
was  a  most  trying  experience,  and  yet  the  men  for  the 
most  part  were  brave  and  cheerful,  stood  up  hopefully  to 
their  work,  watched  with  interest  the  digging  of  the  mine 
under  the  fort  in  front,  enjoyed  the  good  rations,  sent  and 
received  their  mail  daily,  were  thankful  it  was  no  worse 


1 864.]  7 'HE  IN VES TURE  OF  PE  TERSE  UR G.  459 

with  them,  and  yet  rejoiced  and  were  glad  when  the 
final  relief  on  August  18  removed  them  to  quieter  lines 
and  pleasanter  places. 


IN  THE  TRENCHES. 
(From  the  Diary  of  Sergeant  Burnham.) 

June  22. — Pleasant.  Were  relieved  last  night  by  the 
First  brigade,  and  moved  back  into  the  woods.  Clean 
ing  up  was  the  principal  business  of  the  day.  In  the 
afternoon  I  rambled  off  a  mile  or  two  to  the  rear,  and 
looked  over  the  works  we  captured  on  the  i7th.  They 
were  extensive,  well  built,  and  complete.  Am  surprised 
we  got  there  as  easily  as  we  did.  Lively  firing,  both  by 
skirmishers  and  artillery,  in  the  early  evening.  Did  not 
disturb  us  very  much,  though  we  are  still  near  enough 
to  the  front  to  get  the  benefit  of  a  shell  and  even  a  stray 
rifle  ball  occasionally. 

June  25. — Hot,  very.  Once  in  a  while  the  pickets 
get  up  a  racket,  otherwise  it  is  quiet  and  monotonous. 
This  evening  Johnny  tossed  a  few  shells  over,  which 
burst  near  us  but  hurt  no  one.  The  sharpshooters  bang 
away  about  all  the  time,  but  hurt  very  few.  Nearly  in 
front  of  us  our  engineers  have  commenced  work  on  a 
mine  they  propose  to  run  underneath  a  large  fort,  wrhich 
is  a  portion  of  the  enemy's  line  of  entrenchments. 

June  26. — Lay  in  the  woods,  and  took  it  easy  most  of 
the  day.  Got  some  ice  this  morning,  from  a  mine  of  that 
article  we  have  discovered  near  by,  and  with  its  aid 
have  an  unusually  cool  day  for  this  hot  spell.  Some 
other  luxuries,  donated  to  us  by  the  Sanitary  commission, 
such  as  lemons,  pickles,  and  sauer-kraut,  were  another 
feature  of  the  day.  The  commissary  department  is  now 


460  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [June, 

doing  very  well,  and  we  have  little  cause  for  complaint 
about  our  rations. 

June  28. — A  little  cooler.  The  usual  firing  kept  up  ; 
sometimes  only  an  occasional  popping  by  a  few  men  on 
each  side,  practising,  after  the  way  of  sharpshooters, 
each  man  on  his  own  account ;  and  again  a  more  general 
fusillade,  in  which  all  in  the  intrenchments  take  part. 
We  are  squarely  in  front  of  the  fort  that  is  being  under 
mined,  and  only  about  one  hundred  and  fifty  yards  from 
it.  The  top  of  our  earthworks  is  protected  by  bags  of 
sand,  arranged  so  as  to  make  port-holes  through  which 
to  fire.  To  some  extent,  the  same  is  true  of  Johnny's 
intrenchment.  It  is  through  these  port-holes  that  most 
of  the  firing  is  done.  Tried  my  hand  at  it  a  while,  and 
know  I  cut  Johnny's  sand-bags  some,  but  presume  that  it 
is  all  the  harm  that  I  did  him.  We  had  one  killed  and 
one  wounded  in  our  regiment  during  the  day. 

June  29. — To-day  Johnny  tried  his  mortars,  and  landed 
two  or  three  shells  near  our  pits,  but  did  little  or  no 
harm.  Scared  some  of  the  men  considerably.  Put  up 
some  more  sand-bags  on  the  breastworks  during  the  day, 
making  it  high  enough  to  cover  us  when  standing  erect, 
and  with  port-holes  through  which  to  shoot.  A  scraggly, 
thick  abatis  has  been  placed  in  front.  We  are  in  shape 
to  give  the  enemy  a  warm  welcome  should  they  attempt 
a  visit.  Carpenter  of  K,  and  Flynn  of  B,  were  killed 
to-day. 

June  30. — Were  relieved  at  about  nine  o'clock  last 
evening,  and  returned  to  the  bivouac  which  we  have 
come  to  consider  our  camp.  In  coming  through  the  sap 
(a  trench  constructed  so  as  to  afford  shelter  in  passing 
from  the  works  at  the  front  to  places  of  safety  at  the 
rear)  there  was  considerable  excitement.  The  rebel 


1 864.]  THE  IN VES TURE  OF  PE  TERSE  UR G.  46 1 

mortars  opened  fire.  The  effect  was  disastrous  upon  the 
nerves  of  some,  and  the  ducking,  hustling,  and  attempts 
at  running  were  enough  to  make  a  horse  laugh.  Were 
mustered  to-day  for  May  and  June.  Company  E  has 
sixty-six  names  on  its  roll  yet,  but  there  are  only  twenty- 
six  present  with  the  regiment,  and  nineteen  carrying 
guns.  Absurd  rumors  are  afloat  that  the  Ninth  is  going 
to  be  sent  to  New  Hampshire  for  recruiting  service. 

July  4. — This  morning  Mr.  Edwards  of  West  Lebanon 
called  on  us.  Is  at  present  with  the  Christian  commis 
sion,  and  he  brought  us  some  little  luxuries  from  their 
stores.  He  is  very  agreeable,  and  we  enjoyed  his  visit 
very  much.  A  good  many  of  the  men  are  nearly  sick. 
In  the  way  of  rations,  drew  soft  bread  and  pickles  in 
addition  to  the  usual  supplies. 

July  5. — Button  and  I  visited  the  division  hospital, 
which  is  a  couple  of  miles  or  so  to  the  rear.  Near  it  is 
a  detachment  and  supply  tent  of  the  Christian  commis 
sion.  Remained  to  dinner,  which  we  at  least  pro 
nounced  excellent.  At  the  table  made  the  acquaintance 
of  "  Carleton,"  of  the  Boston  Journal.  He  is  a  plain, 
honest,  dignified-appearing  man,  of  nearly  fifty,  I  should 
think.  Works  with  the  commission,  and  does  no  small 
amount  of  good  in  their  service,  besides  attending  to  his 
duties  as  a  correspondent. 

July  7. — A  nearly  spent  Minie  ball  struck  me  on  the 
right  shoulder  this  afternoon.  Was  sitting  on  my  knap 
sack  writing.  It  knocked  me  over,  and  for  a  moment 
I  thought  it  had  gone  through  me.  Soon  found,  how 
ever,  that  I  was  not  seriously  hurt.  It  partially  cut 
through  my  clothing,  and  broke  the  skin  over  the  collar 
bone  just  enough  to  draw  a  little  blood — the  first  Johnny 
has  drawn  on  me. 


462  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [July, 

July  ii. — Considerable  firing  last  night,  but  quiet 
again  to-day.  Towards  evening  the  Johnnies  got  up  a 
sort  of  armistice,  and  tried  to  exchange  papers  ;  but  this 
was  contrary  to  orders,  and  we  declined.  Relieved  at 
9  130  p.  m.  Got  out  this  time  with  one  man  wounded  as 
the  only  casualty. 

July  12. — A  little  cooler.  Went  back  to  where  the 
cooks  are  camped  and  had  a  glorious  wash,  also  a  glo 
rious  meal  of  greens.  Yesterday  we  had  a  great  treat  in 
the  shape  of  a  ration  of  cider,  with  some  other  Sanitary 
supplies. 

July  18. — A  big  scare  last  night.  Enemy  about  to 
attack,  sure.  Whole  division  rushed  to  the  front,  and 
kept  impatiently  waiting  for  the  expected  visitors.  They, 
however,  failed  to  keep  the  engagement,  and  at  sunrise 
we  returned,  except  the  companies  from  our  regiment 
who  remained  as  special  detail.  It  seems  our  turn  for  a 
rest  has  come,  and  we  are  "  reserves,"  for  to-day  at  least. 
Company  drill  in  the  forenoon,  battalion  drill  in  the  after 
noon,  and  dress  parade  at  sunset.  Good  thing,  though 
it  makes  the  men  growl. 

July  19. — Rain.  The  first  for  nearly  six  weeks.  Lay 
in  our  tents  and  enjoyed  it.  It  brings  relief  from  heat 
and  dust,  and  in  large  measure  from  the  flies,  which  have 
been  very  troublesome. 

[From  a  letter  home.]  July  25. — Our  brigade  has 
lately  been  building  a  fort  on  a  slight  eminence  in  the 
rear  of  our  lines,  and  to-day  the  guns — heavy  thirty- 
twos — are  going  in.  These,  with  our  field  artillery  and 
mortars,  will  be  able  to  give  Johnny  about  all  the  rotten 
iron  he  can  easily  stand,  as  we  imagine.  When  we  do 
duty  at  the  front,  too,  a  game  is  on  foot  to  give  our 
friends  a  pleasant  surprise  some  morning.  We  are  under- 


1864.]  THE  INVESTURE  OF  PETERSBURG.  463 

mining  one  of  their  forts.  I  understand  the  powder  is 
now  going  into  the  mine.  When  all  is  complete,  we  pro 
pose  treating  Johnny  to  a  ride  free  gratis  moonward. 
Wonder  how  he  will  like  it?  Day  before  yesterday  we 
had  another  casualty  in  Company  E.  Captain  Buswell 
was  badly  wounded.  Hear  to-day  he  cannot  live.  The 
ball  struck  him  in  the  back  of  the  shoulder,  passed 
through  the  shoulder-blade,  struck  some  of  the  other 
bones,  and  glanced  down  under  his  ribs,  where  it  now 
remains.  The  surgeons  thought  the  chances  of  life  in 
his  favor,  but  guess  it  is  doubtful.  Lieutenant  Sampson 
has  been  assigned  to  the  command  of  our  company.  I 
regard  him  as  a  capable,  efficient  man,  and  hope  he  may 
be  spared  to  us  a  long  time. 

July  27. — The  chief  excitement  among  us  was  a  duel 
between  a  saucy  Johnny  and  myself.  He  was  a  little  to 
our  left,  and  on  higher  ground.  We  put  up  a  shelter 
tent  over  the  particular  bit  of  trench  a  few  of  us  in 
Company  E  occupied.  Johnny  caught  sight  of  it,  and 
opened  furiously,  succeeding  in  working  two  or  three 
button-holes  in  our  canvas.  I  arranged  a  port-hole  with 
the  sand-bags  so  as  to  bear  upon  him.  He  had  no  sand 
bags,  but  fired  through  a  little  depression  in  their  earth 
works.  I  commenced  practice  on  him,  and  in  a  few  min 
utes  had  the  range,  and  knocked  so  much  dust  in  his 
eyes  that  he  concluded  to  keep  quiet.  Soon  after  dinner, 
however,  he  opened  fire  again.  I  responded,  and  soon 
silenced  his  battery.  He  then  kept  quiet  till  near  sun 
down,  when  he  renewed  the  attack.  I  kept  quiet  till  he 
had  fired  two  or  three  times,  when  I  put  my  rifle  through 
the  port-hole  and  watched  for  him.  Presently  his  rifle 
appeared  in  the  usual  place,  and  then  his  head  came  into 
view  as  he  attempted  to  draw  a  bead  on  my  port-hole.  I 


464  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [June, 

fired,  his   hands  and  rifle  went  up  in  the  air,  and  he  fell 
back,  evidently  with  a  bullet  in  his  brain. 

[The  experience  of  Sergeant  Burnham  in  his  duel  with 
the  Confederate  sharpshooter,  came  to  be  a  pretty  gen 
eral  one  before  the  siege  was  broken,  and  this  constant 
practice  made  the  men  of  the  Ninth  very  proficient 
marksmen,  a  statement  of  which  the  enemy  had  abundant 
proof  in  those  days  in  the  number  of  dead  and  wounded 
that  were  daily  carried  back  from  their  picket  line.] 

July  29. — Notice  that  large  quantities  of  ammunition 
are  delivered  to  the  batteries  about  us.  Looks  squally. 


BITS    OF    HOME    LETTERS. 
(Sergt.  James  W.  Lathe.) 

June  21. — Canfield  was  badly  wounded  to-day  in  the 
arm,  just  above  the  elbow — do  n't  think  he  will  lose  it. 
Another  man,  by  the  name  of  Russell,  of  our  company, 
was  also  wounded  in  the  hand.  I  am  the  only  sergeant 
left  in  Company  F,  and  these  are  hard  times,  but  I  am 
well  and  in  good  spirits.  We  have  no  chance  to  wash 
our  clothes,  so  of  course  we  are  dirty,  and  some  are  very 
ragged.  I  found  a  pair  of  rebel  pants,  and  am  wearing 
them.  I  got  nearly  barefoot,  and  I  pulled  a  .pair  of  shoes 
off  a  dead  man's  feet,  and  put  them  on.  I  could  n't  see 
as  he  had  any  use  for  them,  and  I  had  ;  so  I  pulled  them 
off,  and  I  think  I  was  right.  I  do  n't  know  what  you 
would  think  at  home  to  be  obliged  to  rob  a  dead  man  to 
prevent  going  barefoot.  You  wanted  to  know  if  Captain 
Stone's  body  was  sent  home.  It  was  buried  at  Freder- 


1864,]  THE  INVESTURE  OF  PETERSBURG.  465 

icksburg,  without  a  coffin  or  a  box.     It  would  look  hard 
at  home,  but  nothing  strange  to  a  soldier. 

June  23. — Just  think  of  these  sleepless  nights  !  I  have 
seen  nearly  two  moons  wax  and  wane  as  I  have  kept  my 
nightly  vigils,  and  still  no  signs  of  any  advantage  on 
either  side. 

June  25. — I  know  you  will  want  to  hear  from  me  as 
often  as  possible  while  we  are  in  this  dreadful  place. 
From  the  long  lists  of  killed  and  wounded,  which  you  of 
course  see  in  the  papers,  you  will  infer  that  it  is  not  a 
very  safe  place.  It  is  a  bad  place  to  write,  curled  up  in 
the  dirt  in  a  ditch  dug  to  keep  down  out  of  the  way  of 
shot  and  shell.  If  a  man  lifts  his  head  above  the  pit,  a 
bullet  is  sure  to  be  after  him,  and  we  have  to  move  about 
more  or  less  in  sight  of  the  rebs ;  but  we  usually  move 
lively,  and  so  are  not  so  apt  to  be  hit  as  when  standing 
still.  Freeman  comes  to  us  three  or  four  times  every 
day,  to  bring  us  hot  coffee,  rations  of  bread,  meat,  soup, 
and  whiskey.  We  are  getting  a  plenty  to  eat  just  now. 

June  26. — To-day  is  the  most  quiet  for  us  of  any  for 
two  months,  but  in  the  front  line  they  are  having  a  hot 
time  from  the  sun,  and  most  too  many  shells  bursting 
over  them  for  comfort.  The  First  brigade  is  in  now  ; 
we  go  in  again  to-morrow.  I  wish  you  could  hear  the 
musketry  at  night.  Sometimes,  when  one  side  or  the 
other  becomes  alarmed,  thinking  a  charge  is  being  made, 
all  hands  up  and  fire,  the  other  side  replying,  the  sound 
running  down  the  line  as  far  as  you  can  hear.  This  is 
kept  up  sometimes  for  an  hour  or  two,  and  sounds  as  if 
the  ground  was  sliding  out  from  under  our  feet.  I  call 
them  "  spasms." 

June  27. —Some  of  our  men  run  across  a  lot  of  ice  the 
other  day,  near  the  railroad.     It  is  in  a  bad  place  to  get 
xxx 


466  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [July, 

at,  on  account  of  the  rebel  sharpshooters,  but  there  is  a 
pile  of  it  there,  and  the  boys  will  have  it  anyway.  It 
seems  to  last  well,  and  I  hope  it  will  while  we  stay  here. 
The  Christian  commission  is  doing  a  great  work  down 
here,  not  only  with  the  wounded,  but  they  are  continu 
ally  making  presents  to  different  regiments,  of  dried 
apples,  lemons,  tobacco,  and  the  like,  all  in  small  quan 
tities  of  course.  Yesterday  I  saw  a  man  passing  letter- 
paper  around,  one  sheet  and  an  envelope  to  every  man. 
Sutlers  begin  to  bring  in  things,  but  money  is  very  scarce 
among  the  soldiers,  not  getting  any  for  months.  No 
chance  for  paymasters  here — it  is  too  near  the  rebs. 

July  i. — There  was  quite  heavy  firing  nearly  all  night 
last  night.  I  hear  that  a  large  number  of  shells  were 
thrown  into  Petersburg,  and  it  was  said  that  the  city  was 
on  fire.  We  are  almost  exactly  in  front  of  Petersburg, 
or  rather,  Petersburg  is  in  front  of  us.  The  bells  could 
be  heard  ringing  last  night.  We  are  not  much  more 
than  a  mile  from  the  city.  We  have  to  go  into  the 
front  pits  to-night  for  forty-eight  hours  ;  I  dread  it,  but 
have  become  so  used  to  it  that  it  don't  make  much  odds 
where  I  am. 

July  ii. — We  came  in  from  the  front  lines  last  night, 
having  been  out  forty-eight  hours.  But  one  was  hit  dur 
ing  that  time.  He  lost  his  arm.  We  usually  have  from 
three  to  six  in  killed  and  wounded.  We  had  several 
chances  to  see  the  rebs  yesterday  and  day  before.  We 
would  stop  firing  by  mutual  consent,  and  stand  up  in 
sight  and  speaking  distance,  about  one  hundred  yards 
apart.  Many  are  sick  with  the  diarrhea,  but  they  must 
be  kept  on  duty.  No  man  is  allowed  to  be  sick  here. 
The  Sanitary  and  Christian  commissions,  or  the  friends 
at  home,  are  sending  us  pickles,  crackers,  cornstarch, 


1864.]  THE  IN  VESTURE  OF  PETERSBURG.  467 

condensed  milk,  and  lots  of  good  things.  They  come 
in  small  quantities,  but  it  must  take  a  pile  to  go  round  to 
the  whole  army.  They  are  very  thankfully  received, 
and  you  can  judge  whether  they  are  relished. 

July  13. — We  have  some  very  good  springs  about  a 
mile  in  our  rear,  and  the  cooks  do  their  work  down 
there,  and  bring  our  provisions  up  to  us,  making  a  good 
deal  of  hard  work — but  it  is  all  hard  work.  War  is 
hard  in  every  sense  of  the  word.  It  is  a  very  popular 
nuisance,  and  a  great  enemy  to  mankind. 

July  16. — I  had  a  very  good  time  on  picket — I  fired 
nearly  two  hundred  rounds  at  the  rebels  in  the  forty- 
eight  hours,  and  nearly  every  time  I  had  a  good  sight  at 
a  rebel's  head.  Some  of  them  may  have  got  hit ;  it 
would  be  strange  if  they  did  n't.  I  should  dislike  very 
much  to  shoot  a  man,  if  I  could  convert  him  in  any  other 
way,  but  I  can^:  afford  to  stay  out  here  more  than  two  or 
three  years  for  nothing.  It  is  certainly  strange  how  a 
man  can  become  accustomed  to  shells  falling  around, 
big  guns  booming,  and  musketry  at  his  side  ;  but  I  can 
sleep  as  soundly  in  the  midst  of  it  as  you  can  in  your 
comfortable  bed.  It  has  been  so  long  since  I  have 
heard  anything  else,  that  it  seems  as  though  something 
was  wrong  if  they  stop  even  for  a  few  minutes. 

July  18. — Company  F  is  getting  smaller  all  the  time. 
We  carried  sixty-seven  rifles  when  we  started  on  this 
campaign ;  now  we  carry  twenty-seven,  and  have  the 
largest  company  in  the  regiment. 

July  21. — We  have  got  to  get  back  in  the  woods,  and 
drill  in  sight  of  the  rebel  works.  I  do  n't  see  why  the 
rebs  do  n't  shell  us,  but  they  never  have.  They  seem  to 
be  a  merciful  lot  of  men.  I  think  that  they  would  hardly 
be  allowed  to  drill  in  sight  of  our  batteries,  if  they  were  a 


468  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [July, 

mile  away.  That  is  about  the  distance  from  them  to 
where  we  drill.  I  am  going  down  to  the  sutler's  and 
buy  some  potatoes  and  onions  and  have  a  good  dinner 
once  more.  I  got  some  apples  yesterday,  and  they  were 
good,  awful  good,  too,  but  they  cost  high.  I  got  ten 
small  ones  for  a  quarter.  Potatoes  cost  fifteen  cents  a 
quart,  so  it  will  not  pay  to  buy  many  of  them. 

July  25. — I  have  been  out  taking  a  general  survey  of 
the  fortifications  around  here  to-day.  There  are  about 
2,000  negro  soldiers  at  work  digging,  and  have  been 
for  some  time.  The  fields  are  dug  in  deep  ditches  in 
every  direction,  and  large  forts  line  our  second  line  of 
works.  I  suppose  you  have  a  poor  idea  of  the  mischief 
the  shells  do  sometimes.  It  is  like  the  bursting  of  a 
volcano.  Occasionally  they  do  no  harm.  Plenty  of 
them  come  into  this  pine  grove,  and  have  done  but  little 
harm.  Still  I  had  rather  be  a  long  way^from  them — so 
far  that  I  should  never  hear  one  of  them  again. 

July  26. — We  are  in  a  different  place  since  we  came 
out  to  the  front  line  of  trenches,  and  seem  to  be  less 
exposed  to  mortar  shells ;  but  they  have  a  cross-fire  on 
us  with  musketry,  and  several  have  been  killed  and 
wounded.  This  is  a  cramped  up  kind  of  life  for  a  man 
that  wants  action  to  make  himself  comfortable.  Charley 
(a  drummer)  is  peddling  apples  and  the  like,  and  if  the 
troops  were  paid  off  he  would  get  quite  a  pile.  Men 
here  do  n't  seem  to  care  much  about  money,  only  to  make 
them  comfortable  and  get  something  to  eat.  We  get 
very  good  rations,  and  half  the  time  we  have  soft  bread. 

July  29. — There  is  more  artillery  firing  than  common, 
and  there  were  some  large  hundred-pound  mortars 
brought  in  here  last  night.  I  reckon  the  rebs  will  get 
waked  up  by  those  awful  shells.  The  report  of  one  of 


1864.]  THE  INVESTURE  OF  PETERSBURG,  469 

them  is  ten  times  louder  than  any  peal  of  thunder  you 
ever  heard,  and  if  they  strike  the  ground  they  will  go  in 
about  six  feet  and  explode,  and  bad  luck  to  anything 
that  is  over  it,  for  it  will  be  histed.  Some  regiments 
have  been  paid  for  four  months.  The  soldiers  have  been 
raised  to  sixteen  dollars  a  month,  corporals  eighteen, 
sergeants  twenty,  and  orderly  sergeants  twenty -four  or 
twenty-five,  I  don't  know  which. 


CLIPPINGS  FROM  MAJOR  CHANDLER'S  CORRESPONDENCE. 
(Capt.  E.   C.  Babb.) 

June  21. — Our  brigade  is  in  line  behind  strong  works 
in  an  open  field,  while  the  Johnnies  occupy  similar  works 
but  forty  rods  distant.  The  Norfolk  &  Petersburg  rail 
road  runs  between  the  two  lines,  and  our  skirmishers  here 
have  advanced  across  the  railroad,  making  it  pretty  close 
work.  There  is  no  safety  for  us,  except  that  each  man 
keeps  in  his  hole,  and  then,  our  portion  of  the  line 
being  farther  advanced  than  the  rest,  some  of  their 
sharpshooters  get  an  enfilading  fire  from  our  right, 
and  have  hit  some  of  our  men  in  the  pits.  I  had  two 
men  wounded  to-day.  .  Sergeant  Canfield  had  his  right 
arm  badly  shattered  above  the  elbow,  while  lying  down 
in  the  pit  about  noon.  Each  officer,  or  the  officers 
belonging  to  each  company,  have  a  hole  dug  immedi 
ately  in  the  rear  of  their  respective  companies,  and  I 
assure  you  that  I  do  not  leave  mine  between  daylight 
and  dark.  Captain  Hough's  quarters  (hole)  are  within 
ten  feet  of  mine,  and  I  have  not  seen  or  heard  of  him 
since  early  dawn,  and  it  is  now  near  night.  We  have 
been  situated  in  this  way  for  nearly  three  days,  but 


470  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [July, 

expect  to  be  relieved  to-night.  Our  brigade  did  a  hand 
some  thing  last  Friday  morning  about  three  o'clock,  in 
charging  and  driving  the  rebs  out  of  their  works,  about  a 
mile  in  the  rear  of  where  we  now  are,  and  capturing 
four  pieces  of  artillery.  Our  regiment  made  a  charge 
when  we  were  at  Cold  Harbor,  advancing  about  a  quar 
ter  of  a  mile  from  the  rest  of  the  brigade,  across  a  deep 
ravine,  and  driving  the  rebs  out  of  their  works  with  the 
loss  of  only  fifteen  wounded  and  two  killed.  The  rest  of 
the  brigade  soon  came  up  and  joined  us,  and  we  estab 
lished  a  new  line  on  the  advanced  position. 

(Capt.  C.  D.  Copp.) 

June  25. — If  any  appointment  of  second  lieutenant  is 
made  in  my  company  from  the  company,  I  would  like  to 
have  Sergt.  Jerome  Kelley.  He  has  had  charge  of 
the  company,  or  has  acted  as  orderly,  all  through  this 
campaign,  has  done  his  duty  faithfully,  and  a  braver 
soldier  never  lived.  I  know  nothing  of  any  appoint 
ments,  but  merely  write  this  to  let  you  know  my  prefer 
ence.  I  have  not  been  with  the  regiment  for  a  week, 
being  completely  "  played  out."  Lieutenant  Case  is 
also  here  (City  Point)  with  me. 

(Capt.  C.  D.  Copp.) 

July  3. — I  wrote  you  from  City  Point,  where  I  was  sick 
for  a  few  days.  It  is  not  a  very  pleasant  place  to  be  sick 
in,  so  I  concluded  to  rejoin  my  regiment — either  to  get 
better  or  worse.  So  far  I  have  done  well,  although  not 
yet  reported  for  duty.  It  is  the  old  complaint  of  last 
fall — intermittent  fever ;  was  taken  on  the  march  from 
Cold  Harbor  to  the  James  river,  and  was  obliged  to  ride 
in  an  ambulance  two  days.  I  suppose  you  think  your 
self  very  unfortunate  in  being  wounded.  Well,  you  are, 


1864.]  THE  IN  VESTURE  OF  PETERSBURG.  471 

in  one  sense  ;  in  another  mighty  lucky — and  any  other 
man  who  got  out  of  this  campaign.  We  all  thought  we 
had  seen  rough  times,  but  it  was  boys'  play  compared  to 
this.  After  you  were  carried  off,  the  regiment  reformed 
in  the  woods,  having  rallied  about  sixty  men,  and  went 
to  the  front,  where  we  remained  a  week,  till  the  i8th  of 
May,  when  we  made  another  advance.  Since  then  we 
have  been  marching,  and  fighting  half  the  time,  till  about 
the  ipth  of  June,  when  things  came  to  a  standstill,  and 
in  my  opinion  will  remain  so  for  the  present.  Not  having 
been  with  the  regiment  for  several  weeks,  I  am  not  pre 
pared  to  say  much  about  the  fighting,  but  one  thing  I  do 
know,  there  is  no  better  righting  regiment  than  the  Ninth 
New  Hampshire  volunteers  in  this  army.  Even  General 
Griffin  compliments  us.  At  Shady  Grove  he  came  and 
tendered  his  thanks  to  the  men  and  officers,  personally, 
for  their  gallant  conduct.  The  duty  is  not  very  hard 
now,  and  it  is  well  it  is  not,  for  the  men  and  officers  are 
nearly  worn  out.  The  lines  are  close  together,  so  that 
no  pickets  are  out,  or  rather  a  whole  brigade  goes  on  at 
a  time,  strong  breastworks  being  built  for  the  picket  line. 
A  brigade  goes  on  for  forty-eight  hours,  and  off  forty- 
eight  hours.  You  cannot  show  your  head  above  the 
works  with  safety.  Captain  Little  was  wounded  yester 
day  in  the  foot.  Had  two  toes  amputated,  and  left  for 
City  Point  to-day.  We  now  have  about  one  hundred 
and  eighty  rifles.  Out  of  that  one  hundred  recruits, 
thirty  arrived  here,  which  makes  about  two  hundred 
and  ten  for  duty.  You  had  better  suggest  to  the  gov 
ernor  that  if  he  wishes  to  get  any  men  to  their  regi 
ments,  he  had  better  have  an  old  regiment  at  home  to 
go  out  as  guard,  and  I  think  the  Ninth  could  do  it  "  to 
a  charm."  Do  n't  you?  I  advise  you  to  stay  at  home  as 


472  NINTH  NE  W  HAMPSHIRE.  [ J uly, 

long  as  you  can  ;  it  is  too  hot  out  here.  I  suppose  you 
know  Lieutenant  Cheney  has  been  promoted  to  first 
lieutenant  of  Company  I,  thus  leaving  me  alone. 

(Adjt.  William  I.  Brown.) 

July  6. — First,  will  answer  your  questions.  Lieu 
tenant  Babb  is  present.  Lieutenant  Wilcox  has  been 
missing  since  the  I2th  of  May.  We  need  some  field 
officer  or  ranking  captain  badly.  Whitfield  is  sick  at 
Cincinnati.  Cooper  is  not  on  duty,  and  has  just  handed 
in  his  resignation  on  surgeon's  certificate.  Captain 
Blaisdell  is  going  to  resign  soon.  Lieutenant  Perry  is 
out  of  the  service.  You  know  the  adjutant-general's 
report  you  sent — it  was  received  yesterday  morning. 
All  hands  looked  it  over,  but  failed  to  discover  that  Lieu 
tenant  Perry  was  noted  as  discharged  April  20.  Doctor 
Gibson  first  discovered  it — in  less  than  two  minutes 
Lieutenant  Perry  went  to  head-quarters  to  see  about  it. 
At  the  Corps  he  found  his  papers.  He  leaves  for  home 
next  Saturday,  the  most  happy  man  you  ever  saw. 
Colonel  Babbitt  sent  an  extension  of  twenty  days,  and 
thought  he  might  be  able  to  join  us  by  that  time.  I  hope 
he  will,  for  I  tell  you,  Major,  the  regiment  needs  a  com 
mander. 

Our  duties  now  are  as  regular  as  the  days  come 
round.  Forty-eight  hours  at  the  front,  in  the  trenches, 
and  forty-eight  back,  partially  out  of  range  but  within 
supporting  distance.  Have  had  one  review  of  the  bri 
gade,  and  one  dress  parade.  It  is  rather  a  monoto 
nous  life.  Martin  Flynn  was  hit  at  last.  Had  had 
trouble  with  one  of  the  men,  and  went  out  of  the  pits  to 
tell  Lieutenant  Quimby  that  he  was  going  to  lick  that 
man.  He  was  returning,  with  words  of  vengeance  on 


CAPT.  H.  BAXTER  QUIMBY,  Co.  B.  CORP.  FREDERIC   F.  TURNER,  Co.  G. 


OLD  SHOES  OF  CAPT.  H.  BAXTER  QUIMBY. 


BLOODY  ENVELOPE. 


1 864.]  THE  INVES TURE  OF  PE  TERSE  URG.  473 

his  lips,  when  he  was  shot  through  the  head.  Hamilton 
Carpenter,  from  Concord,  is  killed  ;  also  old  man  Rich 
ards  of  Company  C.  The  rebel  mortars  begin  to  trouble 
us  some.  The  pits  cover  us  from  bullets,  but  when  a 
bombshell  drops  into  the  pit,  why  it  subjects  one  to  the 
inconvenience  of  getting  right  out.  We  have  received 
about  thirty  of  the  one  hundred  recruits  sent  to  us.  Had 
to  string  up  some  of  them  to  trees  for  getting  drunk. 
They  found  rum  where  the  old  men  could  not.  Rations 
of  whiskey  are  issued,  which  just  keep  up  a  thirst  for 
more. 

The  Fourth  was  a  very  quiet  day — not  even  the  usual 
picket  firing.  Every  one  seemed  to  suppose  there  would 
be  a  celebration  on  that  day.  Of  course  you  remember 
where  you  were  one  year  ago  that  day.  The  great  event 
of  the  day  with  the  regiment  was  a  large  mail.  We  get 
a  mail  here  every  day,  and  newspapers.  Sutlers'  sup 
plies  are  plenty,  but  money  scarce.  We  expect  to  get 
paid  on  the  i5th.  General  and  staff  officers  have  all 
been  paid.  Rumors  are  very  current  that  one  of  the 
New  Hampshire  regiments  is  going  home  to  enforce  the 
draft,  and  that  it  will  be  the  Ninth  or  Eleventh,  more 
likely  the  latter.  It  caused  considerable  enthusiasm  when 
first  started.  I  think  you  will  have  time  to  get  well, 
come  out,  and  go  home  with  us,  when  we  do  go. 

(Sergt.  Maj.  Franklin  H.  Foster.) 

July  9. — The  Chronicle  says4 'The  army  has  settled 
down  to  a  state  of  quiescence,"  which  is  literally  the  case, 
the  pickets  of  the  Ninth  corps  being  the  only  ones  that 
exchange  shots,  both  musketry  and  artillery.  I  account 
for  it  in  this  way  :  Our  corps  is  much  farther  advanced 
than  any  other  corps  on  the  line  ;  the  picket  lines  are 


474  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [July, 

simply  the  lines  of  battle,  and  being  in  such  close  prox 
imity  to  each  other,  both  are  continually  on  the  alert. 
Occasionally  there  is  a  burst  of  artillery  and  musketry, 
that  will  commence  on  the  right  and  will  finally  extend 
along  the  whole  line,  and  then  it  will  become  still  again. 
The  heat  is  almost  intolerable,  and  flies  torment  us  to 
death,  and  in  spite  of  all  you  can  do  will  prevent  your 
sleeping  in  the  daytime.  We  have  the  luxury  of  ice, 
there  being  two  ice-houses  in  this  vicinity.  Fortunate 
for  us  that  they  are  inside  our  lines.  We  have  also 
obtained  Sanitary  Commission  supplies,  which  have  been 
thankfully  received  by  the  soldiers.  I  am  glad  that  the 
commission  has  learned  that  well  men  need  these  delica 
cies  as  well  as  sick  ones. 

(Adjt.  William  /.  Brown.) 

July  18. — Your  certificate  of  disability  came  this  morn 
ing.  Am  sorry  that  you  recover  so  slowly.  Certificate 
also  received  this  morning  from  Colonel  Babbitt.  We 
have  two  hundred  and  thirty  guns.  Many  without 
arms.  Quite  a  number  present  sick.  Lieutenant  Copp 
went  to  the  hospital  last  night.  Day  before  yesterday 
Captain  Hough  and  I  went  to  Bermuda  Hundreds  to  see 
the  Third  and  Seventh  New  Hampshire.  They  are  hav 
ing  a  fine  time  of  it — nice  camp,  easy  picketing.  Most 
splendid  works,  from  river  to  river.  They  can't  know 
what  kind  of  a  life  we  are  leading.  You  have  perhaps 
seen  in  the  illustrated  papers  a  picture  of  the  rebs  shell 
ing  General  Butler  upon  his  famous  look-out.  I  had  the 
pleasure  to  go  up  that — one  hundred  and  fifty  feet  high, 
made  upon  four  pine  sticks.  Can  see  Richmond  from  it. 

Last  night  an  attack  was  expected  from  the  enemy, 
and  preparations  were  made  to  meet  it,  but  it  did  not 


1864.]  THE  INVESTURE  OF  PETERSBURG.  475 

come.  Our  regiment  was  ordered  up  in  the  night  to 
occupy  the  most  important  position  on  the  line — a  ravine. 
Our  baggage  is  all  there  (at  City  Point)  and  is  brought 
up  every  Sunday.  We  are  still  leading  a  very  unpleas 
ant  life, — only  from  day  to  day.  Have  nothing  at  all 
with  which  to  make  ourselves  comfortable.  Money  all 
out — commissary  won't  trust — hard  times  these.  We 
hear  constant  rumors  that  the  Ninth  or  Eleventh  is 
going  home  to  do  duty  at  Concord.  Shall  we  not  stand 
some  chance  to  go  home  and  vote  in  the  fall?  You  knew 
Captain  Little  was  wounded? — lost  two  toes.  We  have 
just  ten  officers  on  duty  in  the  line.  Hubbard  is  in  the 
Ambulance  corps. 

(Capt.  C.  D.  Copp.) 

July  29. — Here  I  am  at  last  in  a  hospital  [Officers' 
hospital,  Camac's  Woods,  Philadelphia,  Pa.],  not 
wounded,  but  sick:  "played  out"  expresses  it  better. 
Dr.  Webster  sent  me  to  City  Point,  and  from  there  I 
came  to  this  place.  When  I  left,  affairs  were  about 
"  so-so."  Captain  Hough  is  still  in  command.  Just  as 
I  left,  "  Shep  "  told  me  Captain  Bus  well  was  wounded 
through  the  shoulder.  Whether  seriously  or  not,  I  am 
unable  to  say. 


AS  TOLD  BY  THE  COMRADES. 

One  day,  while  Lieutenant  Perry,  Sergeant  George, 
Sergeant  Wakefield,  and  Charles  F.  Sleeper  were  lying 
in  a  bomb-proof,  busily  engaged  with  a  copy  of  the  Man 
chester  Mirror,  a  hostile  shell,  "  on  mischief  bent," 
came  crashing  through  the  boughs  with  which  the  bomb 
proof  was  covered,  and  buried  itself  in  the  ground  close 


476  A?INTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [June, 

beside  Sleeper.  In  another  instant  the  shell  exploded, 
covering  the  men  with  dirt  and  filling  their  supposed 
secure  quarters  with  smoke  and  dust.  Half  blinded  as 
they  were  with  the  flying  debris,  it  was  some  time  before 
the  men  could  fully  realize  that  they  were  unharmed, 
except  Sleeper,  who  had  received  the  force  of  the  burst 
ing  shell  in  his  leg,  blowing  and  burning  nearly  all  the 
flesh  off. 

A  similar  adventure  befell  another  quartette  of  com 
rades,  who  were  whiling  away  the  time  in  testing  the 
varying  fortunes  of  "  draw  poker."  The  game  had 
been  opened  with  two  queens,  and  as  the  hands  promised 
well  the  "jack-pot"  became  an  unusually  interesting 
feature.  Excitement  was  running  high  when — just  at  the 
critical  moment — a  smoking  shell  came  plump  into  their 
midst.  Cards,  jack-pot,  and  everything  else  were  for 
gotten  in  the  hurried  scramble  for  the  opening  which  fol 
lowed  ;  but  though  all  the  players  escaped  injury,  the 
man  who  held  the  winning  hand  has  never  ceased  to 
lament  that  the  intruding  shell  deprived  him  of  a  most 
promising  pot. 

In  the  charge  on  the  enemy's  works  on  the  i8th,  the 
Ninth  was  subjected  to  a  very  heavy  fire.  In  the  course 
of  the  engagement  a  solid  twelve-pound  shot  came 
through  the  woods,  struck  a  tree,  recoiled  to  the  ground, 
rebounded  just  high  enough  to  strike  Sergt.  Henry  F. 
Partridge  of  Company  I  on  the  right  hip,  throwing  him 
to  the  ground  by  the  force  of  the  blow,  and  then  rolled 
some  distance  farther  before  finally  ending  its  career. 
Partridge  was  carried  to  the  rear  for  dead,  but  recover 
ing  consciousness,  was  taken  to  the  hospital,  and  re 
joined  the  regiment  on  the  loth  of  September.  At  the 
Battle  of  Poplar  Grove  Church,  September  30,  Partridge 


1864.]  THE  IN  VESTURE  OF  PETERSBURG.  477 

was  again  wounded,  this  time  through  the  left  hip,  and 
was  again  consigned  to  the  hospital.  Thirty  years  have 
slipped  away  since  those  memorable  days,  and  Comrade 
Partridge  still  enjoys  telling  the  story  of  how  the  Con 
federates  wasted  their  lead. 

Another  peculiar  incident  occurred  in  the  trenches. 
One  day  a  soldier  was  lying  asleep  on  the  ground,  when 
a  shell  burst  just  over*  his  head.  He  never  awoke,  nor 
was  there  any  mark  of  injury  upon  him,  but  the  shock  of 
the  bursting  had  taken  away  his  breath. 

In  the  advance  at  the  Shand  house,  June  17,  the  Ninth 
moved  to  the  front  on  the  evening  of  the  i6th,  taking 
position  close  under  the  enemy's  works.  Every  precau 
tion  was  used  to  ensure  a  silent  advance,  but  the  wary 
enemy,  not  so  easily  fooled,  were  wide  awake  and  on  the 
alert  for  all  intruders,  so  that  the  Ninth  got  a  warm  re 
ception  and  were  glad  to  hug  the  ground  pretty  close. 
After  a  time  the  firing  ceased,  but  not  before  several 
casualties  had  ensued.  Among  the  wounded  was  Ser 
geant  Wakefield,  who  was  struck  in  the  left  side  by  a 
Minie.  The  ball  passed  through  a  diary,  a  Testament, 
a  piece  of  cloth  used  for  cleaning  his  gun,  and  cutting 
through  his  leather  belt  inflicted  a  severe  contused 
wound.  The  plucky  sergeant  refused  to  go  to  the  rear, 
and  supporting  his  cartridge  box  by  a  cross-strap  from 
the  shoulder,  remained  with  his  company  until  the  regi 
ment  was  relieved. 


"THE  WILD  IRISHMAN." 

Martin  Flynn,  more  commonly  known  as  ''the  wild 
Irishman,"  who  was  shot  through  the  head  on  the  2pth 
of  June,  was  perhaps  the  most  notorious  character  in  the 
regiment,  and  was  very  generally  detested  for  his  quar- 


478  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [June, 

relsome,  ugly  disposition;  but  "Mart"  and  his  eccen 
tricities  will  not  soon  be  forgotten,  and  a  few  of  the  many 
anecdotes  now  extant  may  well  find  a  place  here  : 

A.  P.  Home. — Mart  was  in  my  company,  and  was 
always  getting  into  trouble.  When  we  first  went  into 
camp  at  Arlington  Heights,  on  our  way  out,  he  was 
stood  on  a  barrel  for  some  misdemeanor,  and  from  that 
time  on  he  was  in  a  row  with  somebody  so  long  as  there 
was  any  breath  left  in  him.  While  we  were  at  Falmouth 
he  was  sent  down  to  Newport  News  for  striking  Sergeant 
Tucker  of  his  own  company,  and  at  Paris,  Ky.,  he  got 
in  a  quarrel  with  a  man  in  Company  I,  who  shot  Mart  in 
the  neck,  but  to  the  great  regret  of  everybody  just  missed 
killing  him.  I  had  a  little  experience  with  him  at  Spott- 
sylvania.  When  we  were  in  the  last  piece  of  woods, 
just  before  we  came  out  of  the  opening,  Major  Chandler 
rode  up  to  Lieutenant  Quimby,  and  stating  that  Mart 
had  never  been  in  a  fight  with  the  regiment,  ordered  the 
lieutenant  to  detail  a  corporal's  guard,  and  see  that  Mart 
was  kept  well  up  to  the  front.  The  lieutenant  turned 
the  job  over  to  me,  and  a  nice  time  I  had  of  it;  but  I 
took  him  ahead  of  me  down  into  the  fight,  and  got  him, 
I  should  think,  pretty  near  up  to  the  breastworks.  Later 
on  it  was  so  hot  that  I  had  all  I  wanted  to  do  to  take  care 
of  myself,  and  I  knew  Mart  would  make  for  the  rear  all 
right,  so  I  let  him  go. 

Lieutenant  Wilcox. — Mart  would  get  full  every  chance 
he  could,  and  sometimes  he  was  with  the  company  and 
sometimes  he  was  n't.  Once  he  was  arrested  for  getting 
drunk  and  running  away,  and  they  took  a  pork-barrel, 
knocked  one  end  out,  cut  a  hole  through  the  other  end, 
and  hung  it  over  his  shoulders.  The  orders  were  to 


1864.]  THE  INVESTURE  OF  PETERSBURG.  479 

make  him  carry  the  barrel,  and  whenever  a  commis 
sioned  officer  came  within  hearing  distance  Mart  would 
d — n  him  all  up  in  a  heap.  While  he  was  wearing  the 
barrel  a  snow-storm  came  on,  and  the  corporal  kept  him 
in  that  pork-barrel,  out  in  the  snow-storm,  until  it  was 
clear  up  around  his  nose — seven  days  he  wore  it,  from 
reveille  to  sunset. 

Captain  Babb. — After  he  had  worn  that  barrel  four  or 
five  days  some  women  came  into  the  camp  to  sell  pies, 
and  when  they  got  along  pretty  near  where  he  was  one 
of  them  said,  "  See  the  man  with  the  barrel  there!"" 
Mart  heard  her  and  called  out,  "  Give  me  a  piece  of  that 
pie!"  So  she  laid  one  down  on  the  top  of  the  barrel, 
and  he  would  reach  out  his  tongue  and  get  it  around  a 
corner  of  the  pie  and  hold  it  until  he  took  a  bite  out,  and 
he  ate  half  of  a  pie  in  that  way.  At  the  time  he  was 
killed  I  was  making  out  my  muster-  and  pay-rolls,  close 
to  the  line  of  the  fort  where  the  mine  was,  when  I  heard 
Flynn  say,  "G — d  d — n  you!"  and  heard  him  jump. 
That  was  nothing  new  for  him,  however,  and  I  kept  on 
with  my  work,  but  it  was  n't  a  minute  before  somebody 
poked  their  head  in  and  said  that  Flynn  had  been  killed. 
He  was  a  man  hardly  ever  in  a  battle  or  fight,  except 
with  somebody  in  his  own  company  or  regiment,  but  a 
man  who  was  never  subdued  by  any  punishment  that  was 
invented  while  he  was  in  the  army.  He  fully  merited 
his  cognomen  of  "  the  wild  Irishman." 

Sergeant  Burnham. — Flynn  was  in  a  quarrel  with  a 
comrade  when  he  was  shot.  He  had  sprung  up,  rifle  in 
hand,  threatening  to  shoot,  and  in  his  excitement  stepped 
onto  a  little  .mound,  thus  exposing  himself  to  the  enemy's 
view.  That  was  enough  to  seal  his  fate,  and  a  rifle  ball 


480  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [June, 

from  the  enemy's  lines  went  through  his  head  while  a 
terrible  oath  with  which  he  accompanied  his  threat  to 
his  comrade  was  still  upon  his  lips.  Dropping  to  the 
ground,  he  expired  instantly,  and  apparently  without  the 
movement  of  a  single  muscle  after  he  fell.  Speaking  of 
this  fact  not  long  afterwards,  Lieutenant  Quimby  said, 
"  Mart  Flynn  was  killed  the  deadest  of  any  man  I  ever 
saw  !  "  From  this  the  phrase  "  as  dead  as  Mart  Flynn  " 
came  into  use  in  the  regiment. 


ESTABLISHING  A  CLAIM. 
By  Lieut.  S.  H.  Perry. 

Arriving  near  Petersburg  on  the  afternoon  of  the  i6th 
of  June,  we  rested  near  some  old  works  until  about  sun 
down,  when  we  were  ordered  into  line  and  took  up  a 
position  joining  onto  the  Second  corps.  Early  in  the 
evening  we  were  advanced,  and  found  the  enemy  in  our 
front,  near  an  old  house.  We  were  sent  up,  and  took 
our  position,  one  company  at  a  time  ;  and  as  I  dressed 
my  company  (G)  up  to  Company  I,  I  inquired  if  any 
more  troops  were  in  our  front,  and  sending  one  of  my 
sergeants  back  to  find  out,  at  once  gave  the  order  to  lie 
down.  This  order  having  been  carried  out,  we  immedi 
ately  found  out  that  we  were  at  the  front,  as  the  rebs 
opened  on  us.  Directly  in  our  front  was  a  Virginia 
fence,  which  the  men  utilized  for  breastworks,  and  with 
their  bayonets  and  tin  plates  soon  had  a  cover.  It  was  a 
clear,  moonlight  night,  and  all  objects  could  be  readily 
distinguished,  so  we  had  to  keep  close,  firing  whenever 
an  opportunity  offered  and  generally  getting  a  shot  in 
return . 


SERGT.  WEBSTER  HEATH,  Co.  B. 


1864.]  THE  INVESTURE  OF  PETERSBURG.  481 

This  lasted  until  about  midnight,  when  all  seemed  to 
quiet  down.  Towards  four  o'clock  in  the  morning  the 
Forty-eighth  Pennsylvania,  the  Second  Maryland,  and 
the  Seventeenth  Vermont  made  an  advance,  with  the 
Ninth  New  Hampshire,  Sixth  New  Hampshire,  and 
Seventh  Rhode  Island  acting  as  support.  Upon  the 
advance  getting  a  sharp  volley  it  wavered,  and  General 
Griffin  ordered  in  the  support,  which  advanced  on  the 
run,  carrying  the  works  in  our  front  and  capturing  over 
four  hundred  prisoners  and  four  pieces  of  artillery.  The 
Seventh  Rhode  Island  were  going  to  claim  the  whole  of 
the  guns,  but  one  of  them  being  in  my  immediate  front, 
I  seated  one  of  my  men,  William  Calder,  on  it  and  told 
him  to  ride  up  to  head-quarters,  which  he  did ;  and  so 
the  Ninth  New  Hampshire  got  credit  with  the  others. 

XXXI 


CHAPTER   XIV. 
THE  BATTLE  OF  THE  CRATER. 

The  time  fixed  for  the  springing  of  the  mine  was  halt- 
past  three  in  the  morning  of  July  30,  to  be  followed  by 
the  opening  of  all  the  available  artillery  along  the  front 
line,  and  an  assault  at  the  breach  which  would  be  made 
in  the  enemy's  defences  by  the  explosion.  The  attack 
ing  force  was  to  consist  of  two  columns,  which,  charg 
ing  through  the  breach,  were  to  sweep  the  enemy's  lines 
on  the  right  and  left,  while  other  columns  were  to  make 
for  the  crest.  The  Fourth  division,  under  the  command 
of  General  Ferrero,  was  General  Burnside's  first  choice 
as  the  storming  party,  inasmuch  as  he  felt  that  the  occa 
sion  called  for  his  freshest  troops,  and  that  the  soldierly 
qualities  of  the  colored  men,  though  comparatively  un 
tried,  were  yet  worthy  of  confidence.  To  this  end, 
therefore,  for  the  three  weeks  preceding  the  3Oth  of 
July,  the  division  was  most  carefully  drilled  in  the 
details  of  the  work  which  they  were  expected  to  perform. 

At  the  last  moment  the  colored  division  was  declared 
against  by  General  Meade,  who  also  expressed  his 
objection  to  the  4'  tactical  formation  "  outlined  in  the  plan 
of  attack  submitted  to  him  by  General  Burnside  at  his 
request,  declaring  "  that  the  only  thing  to  be  done  was 
to  rush  for  the  crest,  and  take  it,  immediately  after  the 
explosion  had  taken  place."  Such  was  the  embarrassing 
situation  of  affairs  on  the  afternoon  of  the  29th,  for  the 
mine  was  to  be  exploded  at  an  early  hour  on  the  follow- 


1864.]  THE  BATTLE  OF  THE  CRATER.  483 

ing  morning,  and  the  rejection  of  the  Fourth  division 
necessitated  the  choice  of  one  of  the  other  three  to  lead 
in  the  attack.  It  was  not  easy  to  choose  between  equally 
brave  men,  and  General  Burnside  finally  suggested  that 
the  division  commanders  draw  lots  for  the  position.  The 
lot  fell  on  General  Ledlie,  who  at  once  set  to  work  to 
reconnoitre  the  ground  and  prepare  for  the  attack,  and 
before  nightfall  was  ready  for  the  advance. 

The  battle  order  issued  by  General  Meade  directed 
General  Burnside  to  "  form  his  troops  for  assaulting  the 
enemy's  works  at  daylight  of  the  3Oth,  prepare  his«para- 
pets  and  abatis  for  the  passage  of  the  columns,  and  have 
the  pioneers  equipped  for  work  in  opening  passages  for 
artillery,  destroying  enemy's  abattis,  etc.,  and  the  in 
trenching  tools  distributed  for  effecting  lodgments,  etc." 
The  mine  having  been  sprung,  the  assaulting  columns 
were  to  move  rapidly  upon  the  breach,  seize  the  crest  in 
the  rear,  and  effect  a  lodgment  at  this  point.  Major- 
General  Ord,  following  close  behind,  was  to  act  as  sup 
port  on  the  right,  and  Major-General  Warren  on  the 
left,  while  the  other  corps  commanders  were  to  dispose 
their  troops  in  positions  to  follow  up  the  assaulting  and 
supporting  columns. 

It  was  an  exceedingly  trying  situation  in  which  the 
commander  of  the  Ninth  corps  had  been  placed  by  the 
unexpected  action  of  his  superior  officer,  for  his  plans 
had  been  most  carefully  made,  and  in  a  manner,  as  he 
firmly  believed,  to  ensure  a  brilliant  success  ;  but  Gen 
eral  Burnside  was  a  true  soldier,  and  in  the  few  brief 
hours  that  yet  remained  to  him  did  everything  in  his 
power  to  forward  the  execution  of  General  Meade's 
orders.  In  personal  interviews  with  his  own  officers  he 
specifically  detailed  to  them  the  formation  and  move- 


484  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [July, 

ments  of  the  different  bodies  of  troops,  and  especially 
urged  upon  them  the  necessity  of  prompt  and  cheerful 
co-operation  with  each  other  in  performing  the  duties  that 
had  devolved  upon  them.  Formal  orders,  which  were 
issued  later,  were  as  follows  : 

"  i. — The  mine  will  be  exploded  to-morrow  morning, 
at  half-past  three,  by  Colonel  Pleasants. 

"  2. — General  Ledlie  will,  immediately  upon  the  explo 
sion  of  the  mine,  move  his  division  forward  as  directed 
by  verbal  orders,  and  if  possible  crown  the  crest  at  the 
point'  known  as  Cemetery  hill,  occupying,  if  possible, 
the  cemetery. 

"3. — General  Willcox  will  move  his  division  forward 
as  soon  as  possible  after  General  Ledlie  has  passed 
through  the  first  line  of  the  enemy's  works,  bearing  off 
to  the  left  so  as  to  effectually  protect  the  left  flank  of 
General  Ledlie's  column,  and  make  a  lodgment,  if  pos 
sible,  on  the  Jerusalem  plank-road,  to  the  left  of  General 
Ledlie's  division. 

"  4. — General  Potter  will  move  his  division  forward  to 
the  right  of  General  Ledlie's  division,  as  soon  as  it  is 
apparent  that  he  will  not  interfere  with  the  movements  of 
General  Willcox's  division,  and  will,  as  near  as  possible, 
protect  the  right  flank  of  General  Ledlie  from  any  attack 
on  that  quarter,  and  establish  a  line  on  the  crest  of  a 
ravine  which  seems  to  run  from  the  Cemetery  hill  nearly 
at  right  angles  to  the  enemy's  main  line  directly  in  our 
front. 

"  5. — General  Ferrero  will  move  his  division  immedi 
ately  after  General  Willcox's,  until  he  reaches  our  pres 
ent  advanced  line,  where  he  will  remain  until  the  ground 
in  his  front  is  entirely  cleared  by  the  other  three  divi 
sions,  when  he  will  move  forward  over  the  same  ground 


1864.]  THE  BA  TTLE  OF  THE  CRA  TER.  485 

that  General  Ledlie  moved  over,  will  pass  through  our 
line,  and,  if  possible,  move  down  and  occupy  the  village 
to  the  right." 

It  was  an  anxious  night  for  the  devoted  troops  that  for 
,so  many  weary  weeks  had  faithfully  defended  the  Union 
salient,  and  their  few  preparations  were  hurriedly  yet 
•quietly  made.  General  Burnside,  too  much  troubled  to 
remain  quiescent,  repaired  to  the  front  line  at  an  early 
hour,  and  there  awaited  the  coming  of  the  dawn  and  the 
momentous  events  it  would  bring  in  its  train.  About  an 
hour  before  the  time  set  for  the  explosion,  Ledlie's  divi 
sion  began  its  formation,  and  shortly  afterwards  took  up 
its  position  at  the  designated  place  of  debouchement. 
How  slowly  the  moments  wear  away,  as  the  men  resting 
on  their  arms  strain  their  eyes  to  catch  a  glimpse  of  the 
•doomed  fort  through  the  thick  gray  of  the  early  morn 
ing  !  All  unconscious  that  their  span  of  life  is  so  nearly 
run,  the  garrison  is  wrapped  in  slumber.  Not  a  sound 
breaks  the  deep  stillness  of  the  night,  but  so  closely  have 
the  Union  forces  crept  up  that  they  can  even  discern  the 
forms  of  the  sentinels  monotonously  pacing  to  and  fro. 
It  is  quarter-past  three  when  the  match  is  applied.  A 
.stream  of  fire  follows  the  train  of  powder,  and  the  result 
is  awaited  in  an  almost  breathless  silence. 

Fifteen — thirty  minutes  have  slipped  away,  and  still 
there  is  no  explosion.  Another  half-hour  goes  by — a 
precious  half-hour,  for  the  east  is  already  brightening 
and  the  garrison  is  gradually  bestirring  itself.  It  is  evi 
dent  that  the  fuses  have  failed  to  burn  and  must  be 
relighted;  but  who  will  perform  so  dangerous  a  task? 
Two  miners  from  the  Forty-eighth  Pennsylvania,  Lieu 
tenant  Douty  and  Sergeant  Reese,  volunteered  for  the 
work,  and  boldly  entered  the  gallery.  The  fire  had 


486  NINTH  NE  W  HAMPSHIRE.  [July, 

gone  out  about  one  hundred  feet  from  the  entrance,  but 
quickly  repairing  and  relighting  the  fuses  the  brave  fel 
lows  returned  safely  to  their  comrades. 

It  was  more  than  an  hour  after  the  allotted  time  when 
the  explosion  finally  took  place,  and  the  terrible  reality 
of  the  scene  far  outstripped  what  the  wildest  imagination 
had  pictured  in  its  boldest  flights.  The  ground  heaved 
and  rocked  from  the  force  of  the  mighty  pressure  that 
was  gathering  beneath  it ;  an  awful,  thunderous  booming, 
that  broke  in  upon  the  stillness  of  the  early  morning 
"like  the  sound  of  many  waters/'  heralded  the  final 
throes  of  the  volcanic  energy  imprisoned  within  ;  fire 
and  smoke  burst  through  the  ever-widening  fissures, 
and  then,  as  if  the  power  of  the  thousands  of  pounds  of 
powder  that  lay  hidden  below  could  no  longer  be  re 
strained,  but  must  assert  itself  in  one  last,  grand  demon 
stration  of  its  Titanic  strength,  a  mountainous  mass  of 
earth,  mingled  with  guns,  timbers,  human  bodies,  and 
camp  furniture  of  every  description,  reared  itself  high  in 
air  and  fell  in  widely  scattered  remnants  on  all  sides.  A 
hundred  guns  from  the  Union  lines  thundered  in  echoing 
response,  and  an  awesome  stillness  succeeded  what  must 
have  seemed  to  the  suddenly  awakened  hosts  in  the  ene 
my's  camp  like  the  fulminations  of  the  day  of  wrath. 

The  clouds  of  smoke  and  dust  gradually  cleared  away, 
and  the  full  extent  of  the  havoc  that  had  been  wrought 
was  displayed  to  view.  The  enemy's  strongest  work,  a 
six-gun  battery  with  its  garrison  of  two  hundred  and  fifty 
men,  had  been  completely  annihilated,  and  in  its  stead 
there  gaped  an  immense  crater,  some  three  hundred  feet 
long  by  fifty  wide  and  twentv-five  deep,  whose  sloping 
sides  and  bottom  were  thickly  overlaid  with  loose  earth 
and  the  debris  of  the  camp. 


1864.]  THE  BATTLE  OF  THE  CRATER.  487 

The  breach  had  been  made,  and  now  the  time  for 
action  had  come ;  but  the  minutes  seemed  like  hours 
before  Ledlie's  division,  with  Colonel  Marshall's  brigade 
in  advance,  after  removing  the  abattis  that  had  protected 
the  Union  front,  crossed  the  intervening  ground,  and 
halted,  with  fatal  indecision,  at  the  edge  of  the  still 
smoking  crater.  The  crest  which  lay  only  four  hundred 
yards  beyond  was  the  vantage-point  to  be  gained  and 
held,  but  the  troops,  dazed  and  dispirited  by  the  horrors 
outspread  before  them,  sickened  by  the  cries  for  help 
and  mercy  that  emanated  from  the  maimed  and  bleeding 
men  lying  half-buried  in  the  ruins,  pressed  down  into 
the  crater,  again  halted,  and  made  no  further  effort  to 
advance,  though  the  enemy  had  not  yet  recovered  from 
the  shock  of  the  explosion  and  the  much  desired  crest 
lay  completely  at  their  mercy.  The  guiding  hand  that 
might  have  led  them  on  to  a  most  glorious  victory  was 
lacking. 

The  precious  moments  sped  swiftly  by,  and  the  on 
coming  divisions  of  Potter  and  Willcox,  following  closely 
upon  the  halting  force,  found  their  further  advance 
checked  by  the  huddled  mass  at  the  verge  of  the  crater. 
Griffin's  brigade  of  Potter's  division,  deploying  to  the 
right  of  the  crater,  surmounted  the  obstacles  presented 
by  the  intricacies  of  the  enemy's  defences,  and  secured 
about  two  hundred  yards  of  rifle-pits,  advancing  beyond 
these  nearly  half  way  to  the  crest ;  but  by  this  time  the 
enemy  had  rallied  somewhat,  and  bringing  his  guns  on 
Cemetery  hill  to  bear  upon  the  daring  troops,  together 
with  an  enfilading  cross-fire  from  the  batteries  on  either 
side  of  the  crater,  compelled  them  to  fall  back  to  the 
fatal  chasm.  A  part  of  the  Second  brigade  ably  sup 
ported  the  advance  of  the  First ;  while  two  of  the  remain- 


NINTH  NE  W  HAMPSHIRE.  [July, 

ing  regiments  entered  the  crater,  but  turned  sharply  to 
the  right  and  swept  down  the  enemy's  line  for  a  consid 
erable  distance,  one  of  them  even  reaching  a  point  with 
in  twenty-five  yards  of  a  battery  that  raked  their  lines 
with  only  too  sure  an  aim,  until  they  were  driven  back 
by  the  rain  of  iron  hail  before  which  no  man  could  stand 
and  live. 

Willcox,  bearing  to  the  left,  also  gained  a  line  of  pits, 
but  had  so  slender  a  following — the  greater  part  of  his 
men  having  gone  into  the  crater  with  Ledlie's  and  be 
come  involved  in  the  prevailing  confusion — that  further 
progress  was  impracticable.  Nearly  an  hour  of  time  had 
been  consumed  in  these  movements,  and  General  Meade, 
scarcely  comprehending  the  situation  of  affairs  at  the 
front  from  his  head-quarters  in  the  rear,  yet  writh  grow 
ing  impatience  that  the  crest  had  not  been  carried,  at  six 
o'clock  ordered  General  Burnside  to  push  his  "men 
forward  at  all  hazards,  white  and  black,"  and  "not  to 
lose  time  in  making  formations,  but  rush  for  the  crest." 
This  direct  order  was  at  once  transmitted  to  General 
Potter,  who  pressed  his  division  forward  and  attempted 
to  gain  the  crest :  a  sheer  impossibility  in  the  face  of  the 
raking  fire  that  was  turned  upon  them  from  the  batteries. 

It  was  now  seven  o'clock.  The  space  between  the 
crater  and  the  Union  lines,  as  well  as  the  crater  itself, 
was  crowded  with  men  ;  to  send  more  men  in  could  only 
render  the  confusion  more  hopeless  and  magnify  the  dis 
aster  :  but  General  Meade's  order  was  imperative,  and 
the  Fourth  division  advanced  gallantly  to  the  attack.  No 
troops  could  have  been  better  led  to  an  assault,  and  they 
won  the  chief  honor  of  the  day,  capturing  a  number  of 
prisoners  and  a  stand  of  colors,  as  well  as  regaining  a 
stand  of  National  colors  lost  in  one  of  the  previous  assaults. 


1864-]  THE  BATTLE  OF  THE  CRATER.  489 

The  sight  of  the  colored  troops  seemed  to  intensify  the 
enemy's  rage  against  their  assailants,  and  every  available 
weapon  was  turned  upon  them.  All  their  endeavors  and 
sacrifices  were  of  no  avail  before  so  destructive  a  fire,  and 
they  too  gave  way  and  sought  shelter  in  the  crater. 

One — two  hours  went  by,  while  the  enemy's  shells  and 
balls  rained  into  the  crater  like  hail,  turning  it  into  an 
arena  of  unresisted  slaughter.  Any  further  attempt  to 
take  the  ridge  would  be  not  only  useless,  but  an  uncalled 
for  sacrifice  of  human  lives,  and  General  Meade  accord 
ingly  ordered  a  suspension  of  offensive  operations  and  a 
withdrawal  of  the  troops  to  their  own  lines.  But  the  Con 
federate  batteries  were  not  only  directed  against  the 
hapless  victims  in  the  fatal  death-trap,  but  they  swept  the 
ground  between  the  chasm  and  the  Union  line  as  well, 
and  the  men  could  no  more  retreat  than  advance.  The 
enemy,  growing  bolder,  attempted  an  assault,  but  were 
driven  back  with  considerable  loss  by  men  whose  very 
desperation  lent  them  courage  to  repel  the  invaders.  The 
forenoon  wore  slowly  away,  there  seemed  to  be  no  hope  of 
assistance  from  without,  and  the  men  began  to  lose  heart. 
Early  in  the  afternoon  the  enemy  appeared  in  greater 
force  for  a  second  attack,  under  cover  of  which  Generals 
Hartranft  and  Griffin  of  the  Second  division,  though  hotly 
pressed,  succeeded  in  withdrawing  a  considerable  body 
of  troops.  By  degrees  the  crater  was  finally  evacuated, 
and  at  two  o'clock  the  bloody  butchery  of  that  never  to 
be  forgotten  day  had  ceased.  The  total  loss  in  killed, 
wounded,  and  prisoners  during  the  day  was  in  the  vicinity 
of  four  thousand,  of  which  the  Ninth  corps  could  claim 
by  far  the  greater  part,  having  in  killed  fifty-two  officers 
and  three  hundred  and  seventy-six  men  ;  in  wounded, 
one  hundred  and  five  officers  and  one  thousand  five  hun- 


49°  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [July, 

dred  and  fifty-six  men  ;  in  missing,  eighty-seven  officers 
and  one  thousand  six  hundred  and  fifty-two  men,  most  of 
these  having  been  captured  at  the  time  of  the  withdrawal 
of  the  troops  in  the  afternoon.  The  plan  so  carefully 
devised  had  been  set  at  naught,  and  the  blood  of  thousands 
cried  out  from  that  ground  of  defeat  and  disaster. 

HOW  THE  NINTH  KEPT  UP  ITS  REPUTATION. 

What  with  recruits  and  convalescents,  the  regiment 
was  able  to  muster  about  two  hundred  muskets  for  the 
famous  Mine  fight,  in  which  it  bore  a  prominent  part. 
Its  position  was  in  the  first  line  of  the  division,  immediately 
in  front  of  the  fort,  when  the  troops  were  massed  for  the 
charge.  At  the  instant  of  the  explosion  they  sprang  for 
ward,  and  under  cover  of  the  smoke  and  dust  were  the 
first  regiment  to  plant  their  colors  on  the  ruined  works. 
They  pushed  forward  as  far  as  ordered,  and  as  far  as  any 
of  the  troops  went,  and  captured  fully  their  share  of  the 
prisoners  taken.  In  the  fierce  conflict  that  ensued  for  the 
possession  of  what  had  been  gained,  they  performed  their 
part  well,  and  many  were  the  individual  deeds  of  valor 
that  have  since  enriched  the  traditions  of  the  regiment. 

AS  TOLD  IN  SERGEANT  BURNHAM'S  DIARY. 

"  The  3<Dth  of  July  was  very  warm.  At  three  o'clock 
that  morning  we  were  sent  to  the  front,  taking  only  our 
arms  and  our  canteens.  Our  brigade  was  massed  in  the 
ravine  just  behind  our  front  line  of  rifle-pits,  and  not  very 
far  from  the  entrance  to  the  mine.  The  fuse  for  firing 
this  mine  was  lighted  at  daybreak ;  on  first  trial  went 
out ;  was  relighted,  and  at  about  five  o'clock  the  explosion 
came.  It  was  terrific.  The  ground  where  we  stood 


1864.]  THE  BATTLE  OF  THE  CRATER.  491 

moved  sensibly,  and  a  column  of  earth  and  debris  shot  up 
from  the  fort  fully  two  hundred  feet  in  the  air,  carrying 
some  of  the  guns  of  the  fort  and  numbers  of  the  garrison 
with  it,  and  engulfing  everything  about  it  as  it  fell  back. 
The  noise  was  a  dull,  heavy  roar,  and  was  immediately 
followed  by  the  thunder  of  a  hundred  cannon,  as  the  ex 
plosion  was  the  signal  for  all  our  artillery  to  open  fire. 

"We  immediately  advanced,  leaped  our  works,  and 
charged  the  fort.  I  am  confident  that  the  colors  of  our 
regiment  were  the  first  inside  of  it,  or  the  wreck  where  it 
had  been.  Our  men  were  quickly  in  possession  of  the 
works  for  some  little  distance  in  either  direction  from  the 
point  of  explosion,  and  captured  some  four  or  five  hundred 
prisoners,  who  were  hurried  to  the  rear.  Some  hundreds 
of  the  rebels  must  have  been  killed  by  the  explosion,  and 
some  of  those  we  captured  had  been  hurt  by  it.  One 
surrendered  to  me  personally  who  had  been  hit  in  the  leg 
by  a  chunk  of  earth  as  it  fell.  We  pulled  one  fellow  out 
of  the  loose  earth  whose  head  and  hands  were  alone 
visible.  He  had  sailed  skyward  with  the  materials  of  the 
fort,  and  was  nearly  buried  as  they  fell.  His  hair  liter 
ally  stood  on  end,  and  he  was  the  most  complete  picture 
of  fright  I  ever  saw. 

"For  a  short  time  we  had  things  our  own  way,  but 
the  enemy  soon  got  over  their  confusion,  and  began  to 
stand  their  ground,  re-enforcements  arriving  faster  on 
their  side  than  on  ours.  After  a  little,  all  attempts  on 
our  part  to  advance  farther,  ceased,  and  they  com 
menced  a  series  of  determined  charges  to  drive  us  out  of 
the  works  we  had  taken.  The  fight  raged  with  great 
fury  all  the  forenoon,  and  at  times  was  hand  to  hand.  It 
was  the  hottest  work  we  have  ever  seen.  I  think  I  must 
have  fired  more  than  one  hundred  rounds  of  ammunition 


492  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [July, 

myself,  for  I  used  two  or  three  different  rifles,  and  when 
one  got  foul  threw  it  down  and  picked  up  another. 
Never  have  experienced  in  action  so  little  fear,  or 
exposed  myself  so  recklessly,  but  I  escaped  without  a 
scratch.  Men  fell  by  my  side  in  repeated  instances,  and 
how  any  of  us  escaped  seems  to  me  a  miracle. 

"By  about  noon  all  of  our  men  who  had  not  pre 
viously  retired  to  our  line,  or  been  disabled,  were  driven 
into  and  immediately  about  the  crater  made  by  the  explo 
sion  of  the  mine.  All  company  and  regimental  organi 
zation  had  been  lost.  It  was  practically  every  man  for 
himself.  The  enemy  was  sweeping  the  ground  over 
which  we  must  pass  to  escape,  with  a  terrible  fire  of 
both  artillery  and  musketry.  In  this  crater,  which  was 
one  hundred  feet  or  more  in  diameter,  was  the  most 
sheltered  place  to  be  found.  I  reached  it  not  far  from 
noon.  Met  Lieutenant  Sampson  there,  and  talked  with 
him  for  a  minute  or  two.  We  could  see  none  of  our  own 
company,. and  very  few  of  our  regiment,  about  us.  He 
told  me  we  were  at  liberty  to  go  back  to  our  lines  when 
ever  we  felt  like  running  the  gauntlet,  which  we  could 
see  was  a  terrible  one.  As  I  afterwards  learned,  he 
attempted  it  not  long  after  this,  and  was  killed. 

"On  the  side  of  the  crater  towards  our  lines,  I 
observed  a -huge  lump  of  the  clayey  surface  soil  thrown 
out  by  the  explosion.  It  was  apparently  eight  or  ten 
feet  in  diameter.  I  thought  I  could  get  shelter  behind  it, 
and  have  opportunity  for  a  few  parting  shots  at  the 
enemy.  I  told  Sampson  of  my  purpose,  and  scrambled 
quickly  to  what  I  believed  to  be  the  unexposed  side  of 
the  clay  lump.  Almost  at  once  rifle  balls  began  to 
strike  about  me,  and  I  discovered  that  I  had  jumped  '  out 
of  the  frying-pan  into  the  fire.'  I  was  in  full  view  of  the 


1864.]  THE  BATTLE  OF  THE  CRATER.  493 

enemy,  both  to  the  right  and  the  left.  They  had  at  once 
observed  me,  and  were  paying  me  their  compliments. 

"Just  then  a  broadside  from  their  batteries  swept  over 
and  around,  raising  a  great  cloud  of  dust.  I  saw  my 
opportunity,  and  plunging  into  this  dust,  I  was  half-way 
across  the  open  space  between  me  and  our  old  rifle-pits 
before  the  dust  cleared  so  that  I  could  be  seen.  The 
Minies  sung  about  my  ears  like  bees  for  the  rest  of  the 
way,  but  I  reached  shelter  untouched,  though  so  thor- 
ousfhlv  exhausted  from  hard  work,  the  heat,  the  lack  of 

O          •/ 

food,  and  for  the  last  hour  or  two  of  water  even,  that  it 
was  some  time  before  I  could  so  much  as  crawl  back  to 
the  creek  in  the  ravine  near  by  and  get  some  water. 
This,  when  secured,  revived  me  so  that  I  made  my 
way  back  to  our  camp.  A  few  of  the  boys  were  there 
before  me,  and  a  few  came  afterwards,  but  great  num 
bers  are  missing.  The  rebels  recovered  all  their  lost 
ground  within  an  hour  or  two  after  I  escaped,  capturing 
the  few  of  our  men  still  left.  A  sad  day  for  our  corps. 
The  old  story  again — a  big  slaughter,  and  nothing 
gained." 

A  LETTER  TO  MAJOR  CHANDLER. 

(Adjutant  Brown, ) 

BEFORE  PETERSBURG,  August  7,  1864. 
I  should  have  written  you  since  the  battle,  had  I  not 
been  so  very  busy.  An  unusual  number  of  reports  has 
been  called  for,  and  you  know  the  sergeant-major  [F.  H. 
Foster],  upon  whom  I  relied  very  much,  is  among  the 
missing.  I  am  getting  to  feel  rather  blue  that  the  Ninth 
is  so  much  reduced,  and  I  might  almost  say  demoralized. 
I  mean,  in  consequence  of  this  kind  of  life,  a  lack  of  offi- 


494  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [July, 

cers,  etc.,  the  men  have  become  slack  in  duty,  and  the 
discipline  is  poor.  The  officers  and  men  have  become 
so  hardened  to  duty  in  the  trenches  that  it  requires  the 
utmost  vigilance  on  the  part  of  the  officers  who  are  still 
anxious  to  have  the  regiment  do  its  duty  well.  With  no 
punishments  for  neglect  of  duty,  no  reprimands  from 
any  source  that  is  felt,  nearly  all  are  doing  about  as 
they  choose.  Not  that  the  regiment  is  gaining  any  bad 
reputation  outside. 

The  captain  [Hough]  is  dead.  [A  report  which  was 
happily  disproved  later  on.]  He  did  well  in  battle, — 
brave  and  cheerful.  He  was  rather  rash  on  the  3Oth 
ultimo,  but  was  not  so  when  he  lost  his  life.  At  one 
time  he  jumped  upon  the  parapet  of  the  fort,  waving 
the  colors  to  stop  the  negroes  from  firing  into  us.  He 
very  much  exposed  himself,  and  upon  being  remon 
strated  with,  said  there  was  no  bullet  for  him  that  day. 
Only  a  few  minutes  after,  he  was  shot  through  the  neck. 
I  have  written  to  his  wife.  All  the  officers,  without  any 
exception,  conducted  themselves  with  marked  bravery. 

The  Boston  Journal,  August  4,  has  a  letter  from  John 
Edwin  [Mason].  Lieutenant  Sampson,  at  first  reported 
missing,  was  found  dead  when  the  flag  of  truce  went  out. 
His  remains  were  sent  home.  Your  remarks  about  our 
treatment  of  the  friends  of  deceased  officers  I  appreciate. 
I  presume  we  have  been  more  neglectful  than  we  think 
for.  It  has,  however,  been  next  to  impossible  to  do 
much  toward  sending  home  their  effects.  We  are  very 
remote  from  all  communications,  so  that  it  is  difficult  to 
do  anything.  I  will  see  that  all  is  done  that  can  be. 

Am  glad  to  learn  that  Colonel  Babbitt  has  started  for 
the  regiment.  Hope  he  will  not  get  detained  in  Wash 
ington.  Lieutenant-Colonel  Pleasants,  Forty-eighth 


1864.]  THE  BATTLE  OF  THE  CRATER.  495 

Pennsylvania,  is  commanding  the  brigade,  his  regi 
ment  being  temporarily  assigned  to  this  brigade.  Most 
of  the  Thirty-first  and  Thirty-second  Maine  were  cap 
tured.  No  regiment  but  ours  brought  off  both  stands  of 
colors  complete.  Lieutenant  Harlow  brought  off  the 
National  colors.  Sergeant  Parsons,  Company  D,  was 
shot,  and  died  during  the  day.  I  have  Sergeant  Hart- 
well,  Company  I,  acting  as  sergeant-major.  Lieutenant 
Wilcox,  you  know,  is  a  prisoner.  Lieutenant  Donovan 
is  commanding  Company  I ;  Lieutenant  Babb,  Com 
pany  G.  Lieutenant  Robinson  has  just  returned  in 
good  health.  Have  heard  from  Captain  Hutchinson  at 
Annapolis;  is  gaining,  and  hopes  to  be  with  us  soon. 
You  may  see  General  Griffin — he  has  gone  home.  Your 
surgeon's  certificate  has  been  received. 


SERGEANT    BUTTON'S    STATEMENT. 

"The  Ninth  New  Hampshire  had  received  orders  about 
dark  to  be  ready  to  move  at  a  moment's  notice  ;  to  leave 
knapsacks,  haversacks,  and  everything  but  canteens, 
which  were  to  be  filled  with  water  and  kept  filled  until 
the  moment  of  departure.  We  knew  that  meant  bloody 
work.  We  lay  on  our  arms  until  about  midnight,  when 
we  were  taken  out  the  usual  way  to  the  front,  and  were 
brought  into  position  about  two  rods  to  the  rear  of  the 
line  of  intrenchments.  There  we  waited.  The  fuse 
was  lighted  at  three  o'clock  in  the  morning  on  the  3Oth 
of  July.  No  explosion  following  in  reasonable  time, 
two  men  of  the  Forty-eighth  Pennsylvania  volunteered  to 
go  into  the  mine  and  see  what  the  matter  was.  They 
found  that  the  fuse  had  gone  out,  and  relighting  it,  came 
back.  While  this  was  going  on  at  the  front,  General 


496  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [July, 

Griffin  was  called  back  to  head-quarters  for  consultation 
with  Generals  Grant  and  Burnside. 

"About  live  o'clock — two  hours  after  time — the  mine 
exploded  and  the  fort  was  blown  up.  The  moment  that 
it  went  up  one  hundred  pieces  of  artillery,  which  were 
opened  in  the  rear,  were  unheard  by  me,  so  great  was 
the  force  of  the  explosion.  Immediately  Captain  Hough, 
who  was  commanding  the  regiment,  cried  '  Forward  !* 
We  sprang  to  our  feet  and  went  forward,  over  our  in- 
trenchments.  The  first  object  that  met  my  eyes  as  I 
jumped  over  our  fortifications  was  a  rebel,  stretched  out 
at  full  length,  having  been  blown  a  hundred  and  fifty 
yards.  We  passed  on,  up  to  the  lines,  and  Sergeant 
Parsons,  who  was  carrying  the  National  colors,  was  shot 
through  the  thighs.  He  was  carried  to  the  rear,  and 
died  about  four  o'clock  that  afternoon. 

"  When  I  wrent  to  the  crater  and  looked  into  it,  there 
were  not  more  than  a  half  dozen  men  of  our  troops 
ahead  of  our  regiment,  and  I  am  very  sure  that  the 
colors  which  we  carried  were  the  first  in  the  crater 
proper  that  morning,  but  whether  they  were  the  first  to 
the  right  or  left  on  the  line  of  the  crater,  I  do  not  know. 
There  were  a  number  of  rebels  in  the  crater,  sticking  out 
of  the  ground  in  every  imaginable  shape  ;  some  with  heels 
in  the  air,  and  buried  head  downward,  and  others  who 
were  buried  feet  downward.  One  old  man  had  been 
planted  about  up  to  his  middle,  and  cried  out  lustily  for 
me  not  to  kill  him,  but  to  dig  him  out  and  take  him  to 
the  rear. 

"We  passed  down  through  the  crater,  up  the  other 
side,  and  into  a  wide  traverse  made  for  taking  ar 
tillery  in  and  out  of  the  fort.  There  we  remained. 
Sergeant  Simons  of  Company  A  was  one  of  the  first 


CAPT.  ANDREW  J.  HOUGH,  Co.  I. 


1864.]  THE  BATTLE  OF  THE  CRATER.  497 

men  to  enter  the  crater.  He  passed  on  ahead  of  his 
men  in  his  enthusiasm,  got  beyond  their  reach,  and  into 
the  hands  of  the  enemy,  who  demanded  his  surrender. 
He  drew  his  rifle  to  his  shoulder  and  shot  a  man,  and 
was  then  knocked  down  by  the  butt  of  a  rifle  in  the 
hands  of  a  Johnny.  The  man  placed  his  foot  on 
Simons's  breast  and  was  going  to  run  him  through  with 
his  bayonet,  when  Simons  sung  out,  *  Hold  on  there,  I 
surrender !'  A  sergeant  was  standing  close  by  them, 
and  he  said  to  the  man,  '  If  he  surrenders,  do  n't  kill 
him,  but  take  him  prisoner.' 

"About  that  time  the  firing  began  to  be  very  severe  all 
around  them,  and  they  all  got  into  a  dug-out  or  bomb 
proof  to  escape  the  bullets  that  poured  in  from  all  sides. 
There  were  three  or  four  of  the  rebels  in  there  with 
Simons,  but  he  was  as  cool-headed  as  ever,  and  after  a 
little  said  to  them,  in  the  course  of  conversation,  '  Gen 
eral  Grant  is  coming  with  50,000  men,  and  Petersburg 
is  going  to  be  taken.  Now  I  '11  tell  you  what  I  '11  do  :  If 
he  does  n't  get  in,  you  can  take  me  safely  to  your  rear ; 
if  he  does  get  in,  I  '11  take  you  safely  to  our  rear.'  They 
all  agreed  that  this  proposition  was  a  fair  one,  and  it 
was  n't  long  before  Simons  spied  some  of  our  men  com 
ing  towards  the  bomb-proof.  Quick  as  a  flash  he  sung 
out,  '  Now  is  your  time,  boys  ;  just  drop  your  guns  and 
come  with  me  !'  We  took  them  out,  and  passed  them 
down  through  the  lines  and  up  to  head-quarters,  where 
Simons  turned  over  his  prisoners.  He  himself  was 
obliged  to  go  to  the  hospital,  on  account  of  the  wounds 
he  had  received;  but  he  got  a  furlough,  came  back  in 
the  fall,  and  secured  his  promotion. 

"There  we  continued  as  long  as  we  remained  in  the 
fort.     The  traverse  was  well  filled  with    men,  and  the 

XXXII 


498  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [July, 

rebels,  recovering  from  their  surprise,  made  two  or  three 
charges  upon  us.  It  was  about  this  time  that  the  bri 
gade  received  orders  from  General  Griffin  to  proceed  to 
take  Cemetery  hill  immediately,  and  while  we  were 
arranging  our  regiment,  which  had  been  completely 
broken  up  by  the  charge  and  the  situation  of  the  ground, 
the  colored  troops,  which  had  just  been  ordered  in,  came 
up  and  charged  right  onto  us,  and  waving  their  flags, 
cried  out  to  us  to  surrender,  and  then  began  firing  down 
at  us. 

"  We  made  ourselves  known  as  soon  as  we  could,  and 
then  they  ceased  firing,  crowding  into  a  rifle-pit  right 
over  in  front  of  this  traverse.  They  had  their  bayonets 
fixed,  and  guns  loaded  but  uncapped,  when  the  rebels 
made  a  charge  on  them,  and,  being  exposed  to  the 
extent  of  half  of  their  bodies  where  they  were  then 
standing,  to  escape  the  rebel  fire  they  jumped  over  onto 
us.  If  you  can  imagine  a  mass  of  worms  crawling  over 
each  other,  vou  will  have  a  very  good  idea  of  the  condi 
tion  of  things  in  that  traverse. 

"The  men  were  bayoneted,  crushed,  and  trampled, 
and  at  the  same  time  the  rebels  came  up  at  the  head 
of  the  traverse  and  commenced  to  pour  a  fire  down  in 
upon  us.  I  jumped  onto  the  top  of  the  ground  at  the  side 
of  the  traverse,  and  ran  along  with  my  colors,  and  finally 
made  my  way  into  the  crater,  which  was  packed  full 
with  men  from  different  regiments,  for  all  organization 
had  been  lost,  and  many  indeed  were  too  badly  wounded 
to  get  out,  even  had  there  been  an  opportunity. 

"  By  this  time  the  rebels  had  got  a  dog  or  small  mortar 
battery  into  play,  and  were  planking  the  shells  into  the 
crater  with  fearful  precision  and  effectiveness.  I  went 
down  into  the  bottom  of  the  crater,  and  there  I  found  a 


1864.]  THE  BATTLE  OF  THE  CRATER.  499 

lieutenant  (Isaac  Leonard  Harlow,  of  Company  H,  I 
think),  who  had  the  other  stand  of  National  colors. 
After  a  while  we  managed  to  get  back  to  the  edge,  and 
then  we  lay  for  some  time  behind  a  large  clump  of  earth 
and  debris,  which  afforded  us  considerable  protection, 
and  there  debated  the  question  whether  we  should  remain 
where  we  then  were,  and  be  taken  prisoners,  or  run  the 
gauntlet  to  our  lines.  It  was  a  pretty  serious  question, 
as  to  which  horn  of  the  dilemna  might  prove  to  be  the 
sharper ;  but  we  finally  decided  to  take  our  chances 
running.  Having  made  our  plans,  we  waited  until  we 
saw  what  looked  to  be  a  favorable  opportunity,  and  then 
started,  in  company  with  several  others.  We  reached 
our  lines  in  safety,  though  just  as  I  passed  over  our 
breastworks  a  bullet  struck  the  flag,  passing  through  the 
tassel." 


WHY  THE  NINTH  WAS  THE  FIRST  REGIMENT  TO  FLOAT 
ITS  COLORS  OVER  THE  CRATER. 

By  Sergt.  George  L.  Wakefield. 

In  his  testimony  given  at  the  court  of  inquiry  on  the 
conduct  of  the  war,  held  after  the  fiasco  at  the  Mine, 
General  Burnside  stated  that  the  detail  from  the  Eight 
eenth  corps  which  was  to  have  relieved  the  regiments 
(of  which  the  Ninth  New  Hampshire  was  one)  on  guard 
in  the  forts  the  night  before  the  battle,  had  lost  their  way 
and  did  not  arrive  in  season.  The  Ninth,  therefore,  to 
gether  with  the  Seventeenth  Vermont  and  some  others, 
was  on  the  frontline  at  the  time  of  the  explosion,  and  was 
at  once  ordered  forward,  leading  the  charge  directly  into 
the  crater.  Though  the  men  were  almost  suffocated  by 
the  clouds  of  smoke  and  dust,  they  were  the  first  to  float 


500  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [July, 

their  colors  over  the  ruins  that  marked  the  spot  where 
the  rebel  fort  had  stood  only  a  moment  before. 

I  had  been  doing  duty  as  sergeant  of  the  guard  the  day 
before  the  battle,  and  that  night  we  were  ordered  to  the 
front  to  act  as  skirmishers.  If  relieved,  we  were  to 
return  to  our  regiments  ;  if  not,  we  were  to  advance  when 
the  time  for  action  came.  No  relief  came,  and  as  soon  as 
the  explosion  took  place,  the  guard,  with  Lieutenant 
Drew's  pioneers,  rushed  forward  through  the  smoke  and 
dust  into  the  crater.  We  pushed  around  the  right  side, 
to  one  of  the  Johnnies'  traverses  or  pits,  seeing  nothing 
of  the  enemy  save  where  they  were  lying  half  buried  in 
the  dirt  and  debris  of  the  ruins. 

Advancing  down  the  pit  back  of  their  breastworks,  we 
found  a  large  body  of  the  rebels  huddled  together,  only 
partially  dressed  and  scarcely  comprehending  even  then 
what  had  happened,  and  taking  them  prisoners,  hurried 
them  over  their  works  and  back  into  our  lines.  Our  old 
picket  line  was  occupied  by  the  troops  from  the  Eight 
eenth  corps,  and  as  the  prisoners  advanced  towards  our 
lines,  they,  not  understanding  the  situation  of  affairs, 
fired  into  them. 

I  jumped  onto  the  works  and  tried  to  make  them  see 
their  mistake,  but  it  was  of  no  use.  They  were  simply 
wild  with  excitement,  and  kept  on  firing  until  our  pris 
oners  were  fairly  forced  back  into  their  own  works, 
carrying  us  with  them  in  one  confused  mass.  Then  the 
tables  were  turned,  for  recovering  what  arms  they  could 
they  rushed  upon  us  with  clubbed  muskets  or  any  other 
available  weapon. 

Dr.  Moulton,  of  Francestown,  then  a  member  of  Com 
pany  G,  was  struck  on  the  head  and  knocked  down,  and 
his  assailant  was  in  turn  laid  low  by  Roscoe  Kidder,  of 


1864.]  THE  BATTLE  OF  THE  CRATER.  501 

Company  F,  and  another  comrade  whose  name  I  cannot 
recall.  Then  we  three  dragged  the  doctor  out  a  few 
steps,  and  standing  over  his  prostrate  form  fired  our 
guns — for  the  first  time  that  morning — squarely  in  the 
faces  of  the  enraged  rebels.  Our  action  was  so  wholly 
unexpected  and  so  effective  that  it  brought  them  to  a 
standstill  for  a  moment,  and  before  they  had  recovered 
from  their  surprise  we  got  the  doctor  back  out  of  their 
reach.  He  soon  recovered  consciousness,  and  came  out 
of  that  battle  only  to  get  killed  on  the  3Oth  of  September. 

Captain  Hough  was  right  in  the  thick  of  the  fight.  I 
saw  him  when  he  was  >shot  down,  and  supposed  he  was 
dead,  for  he  had  received  a  terrible  wound;  but,  thank 
God,  Captain  Jack  still  lives  !  A  little  later  I  ran  the 
gauntlet  between  the  lines  for  a  fresh  supply  of  cart 
ridges.  My  clothes  were  literally  covered  with  bloody 
debris,  and  called  forth  many  comments  from  the  troops 
in  the  rear,  but  I  quickly  secured  my  cartridges  and 
returned  to  the  crater. 

No  pen  can  ever  do  justice  to  the  dreadful  scenes  of 
that  fearful  and  bloody  holocaust — where  the  Minies 
were  falling  like  hail,  shot  and  shell  were  coming  thick 
and  fast,  and,  to  add  even  more  horror,  the  shells  from 
the  mortars  were  dropping  in  our  midst  every  four  or 
five  seconds,  literally  tearing  the  men  to  pieces.  Dis 
membered  bodies,  legs,  arms,  and  heads  strewed  the 
ground  in  every  direction,  and  this  horrible  butchery 
explains  why  the  men's  clothes  were  covered  with  blood 
and  fragments  of  human  flesh  and  brains  to  a  degree 
never  seen  in  any  other  battle  of  the  war.  Though  my 
fortune  carried  me  into  the  foremost  of  the  fray,  I  came 
out  all  right,  except  that  my  clothes  needed  washing  and 
mending  before  being  presentable  in  polite  society. 


502  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [July, 

FROM    PRIVATE    CLEMENT'S    STANDPOINT. 

"  I  shall  never  forget  the  morning  of  the  3Oth  of  July, 
1864,  as  we  lay  behind  the  little  hill  just  to  the  rear  of 
where  we  had  done  picket  duty  so  long.  While  waiting 
for  the  explosion  two  men  from  each  company  were 
asked  to  volunteer  to  go  in  advance  as  soon  as  the 
explosion  had  occurred,  and  I  was  one  of  the  two  from 
Company  F  who  did  so.  As  I  remember  it,  Lieutenant 
Drew  of  Company  F  was  in  charge,  and  we  were  in  the 
ruins  of  the  fort  before  the  dust  had  settled.  Isaac  Frye 
and  myself  were  on  a  small  pile  of  dirt  just  the  other  side 
of  the  fort,  and  were  shooting  at  a  battery  in  our  front. 
We  had  fired  as  many  as  fifty  shots  when,  as  Comrade 
Frye  turned  to  take  a  cartridge  from  his  box,  a  ball 
struck  him  in  the  breast  and  he  fell  back  into  the  arms 
of  Lieutenant  Drew.  Just  then  the  dirt  flew  thick 
around  me,  which  caused  me  to  drop  down  on  my 
knees. 

"About  this  time  the  colored  troops  were  brought  in. 
They  charged  right  down  in  front  of  where  I  was,  and 
when  they  were  near  the  intrenchments  just  in  front  of 
us  the  rebels  gave  it  to  them  so  hot  that  they  broke  and 
came  back,  jumping  and  tumbling  into  the  trench  where 
we  were  already  as  thick  as  we  could  stand.  They  had 
their  bayonets  fixed,  and  one  of  them  would  have  run 
me  through  if  I  had  not  warded  off  his  gun  with  my 
own.  As  it  was,  his  bayonet  drew  the  blood  in  my 
abdomen,  and  the  scar  is  there  now.  As  soon  as  the 
negroes  came  back  the  rebels  charged  on  us,  but  as  they 
were  ordering  us  to  surrender  the  men  back  of  us  let 
them  have  it  right  in  their  faces  and  at  very  short  range, 
so  that  those  who  were  not  shot  fell  back.  Just  then  we 
received  the  order  to  charge  on  them,  and  as  I  raised 


1864.]  THE  BATTLE  OF  THE  CRATER.  503 

my  foot  to  go  I  received  a  shot  just  above  the  knee. 
The  thought  of  rebel  prisons,  and  how  my  oldest  brother 
had  been  starved  to  death,  nerved  me  to  take  my  chances 
and  get  out  if  possible. 

"  While  running  across  the  field  a  bullet  passed  through 
my  hat,  and  another  cut  my  shoestring  and  drew  blood 
on  my  instep.  I  soon  got  to  the  field  hospital,  and  some 
six  hours  after  I  was  wounded  the  surgeon  probed  for 
the  ball  but  could  not  find  it,  and  so  I  was  sent  to 
Mt.  Pleasant  hospital  at  Washington,  D.  C.  Dr.  Brad- 
field,  a  splendid  young  man,  had  charge  of  Ward  Ten, 
where  I  was  placed,  and  he  too  failed  to  find  the  ball 
until  after  I  had  been  there  about  two  weeks,  when  I 
was  able  to  locate  it  by  the  soreness.  The  doctor  cut 
it  out  about  six  inches  above  where  it  entered,  and  found 
that  it  had  shattered  the  bone.  I  suffered  great  pain  at 
the  time,  and  my  leg  troubles  me  to  this  day  and  causes 
me  to  be  a  little  lame. 

"After  the  ball  was  extracted  I  began  to  improve,  and 
was  granted  a  furlough  of  thirty  days,  after  which  I 
returned  to  the  hospital  at  Washington,  and  was  soon  sent 
to  the  hospital  which  had  been  established  at  Manches 
ter,  N.  H.  I  was  there  some  four  weeks,  and  then  was 
sent  to  Galloupe's  island,  in  Boston  harbor,  about  nine 
miles  from  the  city,  and  stayed  there  seven  weeks  wait 
ing  transportation  to  the  front.  There  were  many  like 
myself  who  were  waiting  for  transportation,  and  there 
was  a  great  number  of  recruits.  Hardly  a  night  passed 
but  some  one  was  robbed  or  garrotted,  so  it  was  not  safe 
to  go  out  after  dark  ;  and  as  it  was  now  winter  weather 
the  barracks  were  very  cold,  so  take  it  altogether  it  was 
a  most  disagreeable  experience  that  I  had  while  at  this 
point,  and  I  was  glad  when  I  left  the  place. 


504  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [July, 

"  I  shall  never  forget  the  first  night  on  the  boat,  which 
was  an  old  government  transport,  the  DC  Molay.  It 
brought  a  load  of  rebel  prisoners  to  Fort  Warren,  and 
we  were  put  down  in  the  hold  so  thick  that  I  could  not 
lie  down  at  all,  and  had  to  sit  or  lean  against  another 
man  all  the  time.  Such  a  night  as  that  was !  The 
greater  part  of  the  men  were  sick,  or  crazy  with  whis 
key,  and  were  fighting  all  night  long,  but  the  next 
morning  when  we  went  on  deck  to  get  coffee  I  managed 
to  crawl  in  behind  the  smoke-stack  where  it  was  warm, 
and  there  I  stayed  until  we  arrived  at  City  Point,  Va. 
Although  suffering  from  cold  and  hunger  during  the 
remaining  two  days  and  nights  that  we  spent  on  the 
boat,  I  made  up  my  mind  that  I  would  never  go  below 
again  so  long  as  the  guard  let  me  alone,  but  it  was  a 
relief  when  we  were  at  last  allowed  to  go  ashore. 

"  From  City  Point  I  went  in  the  cars  to  near  Peters 
burg,  where  I  joined  my  company  once  more  ;  but  as  I 
was  some  lame  I  was  detailed  for  special  duty,  and  was 
sent  to  Alexandria  to  guard  the  officers'  baggage.  This 
was  a  short  time  before  the  rebels  evacuated  Petersburg. 
Still  being  unable  to  do  full  duty,  I  was  detailed  as 
orderly  for  the  adjutant,  and  carried  the  mail  until  I  was 
discharged,  June  10,  1865." 


PRIVATE    BARNES    OF    COMPANY    B. 

"  It  was  about  half-past  two  or  three  in  the  morning 
when  we  were  ordered  out  in  front  of  the  works,  and  at 
a  quarter  to  five  the  first  thing  I  knew  I  was  over  in  the 
rebel  works  along  with  the  rest  of  the  men.  It  seems 
that  when  the  explosion  came  we  went  for  the  rebel  line, 
under  cover  of  the  dust  and  smoke,  and  as  soon  as  we 


1864.]  THE  BATTLE  OF  THE  CRATER.  505 

got  there  began  taking  prisoners.  Some  of  those  that 
we  captured  said  that  there  were  a  lot  of  men  who  had 
been  caught  in  the  falling  debris  and  could  not  get  out, 
and  wanted  us  to  help  them  ;  so  we  set  to  work,  and  dug 
with  bayonets  or  anything  else  that  we  could  get  hold  of. 
We  took  out  some  rebels  that  were  alive,  and  one  of 
them  was  a  young  man  whose  hair  had  been  dark  before 
the  explosion,  but  when  we  took  him  out  it  had  turned 
white  from  fright. 

"  There  were  seven  men  in  the  first  lot  that  we  dug 
out,  and  a  man  from  Company  A  and  myself  were 
detailed  to  take  them  to  the  rear.  We  took  them  back 
to  where  the  big  spring  was,  and  then  we  returned  to  the 
fort.  We  got  there  just  as  the  colored  troops  broke  and 
came  back  on  our  men — and  the  next  moment  the  rebels 
were  on  us — and  I  heard  one  of  them  say,  '  Give  the  black 
devils  a  dose,  and  then  take  the  bayonet  to  the  rebels  !  * 
meaning  us,  I  suppose.  We  were  in  the  ditch  between 
the  two  fires,  but  we  gave  it  to  the  rebels  with  muskets 
and  bayonets  both.  That  was  when  I  got  the  crack 
with  a  musket  on  my  head,  and  found  myself  three  days 
later  in  the  hospital,  but  I  never  knew  how  I  got  there." 


A    STORY   WITH    A    SEQUEL. 

The  story  is  outlined  in  the  following  extracts  from  let 
ters  written  by  Sergt.  James  W.  Lathe  to  his  wife  on  the 
day  after  the  battle  and  during  the  ensuing  month  : 

"  I  commanded  my  own  company  [F]  yesterday,  and 
killed  five  rebels,  including  an  officer,  before  I  was  hit ; 
so  I  am  square  with  them  anyway.  I  have  lost  part  of 
my  right  hand.  The  two  middle  fingers  are  out  nearly 


506  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  (July, 

up  to  the  wrist,  and  my  little  finger  close  up  on  the  first 
joint.  It  was  my  twelfth  and  last  battle,  and  we  fought 
with  bayonets  and  knocked  down  with  muskets  in  the 
most  cold-blooded  manner.  I  feel  that  I  have  done  my 
part  in  this  human  butchery." 

"The  only  thing  pleasant  about  this  hospital  [Mount 
Pleasant]  is  a  lot  of  little  cats,  that  play  around  all  the 
time, — they  are  the  only  -pleasant  phase  of  the  whole 


"  I  did  not  expect  to  get  out  of  my  last  battle  alive. 
When  I  ordered  my  men  forward  I  thought  of  you,  and 
that  I  should  never  see  you  again." 

"  I  shall  come  out  one  of  these  days  with  the  worst- 
looking  Paw  you  ever  saw.  It  will  look  like  a  meat 
fork.  It  was  done  by  a  Minie  ball,  while  I  was  on  the 
top  of  the  pile  of  earth  thrown  up  by  the  explosion  of  the 
rebel  fort.  I  had  been  in  the  rebel  trenches  all  the  fore 
noon,  and  was  going  out  into  the  crater  when  I  was  hit. 
The  fellow  that  hit  me  was  close  behind,  not  more  than 
a  rod  or  two.  If  I  had  stayed  fifteen  minutes  longer  I 
should  have  been  a  prisoner." 

Sergeant  Lathe  has  an  order  signed  by  Captain  I.  T. 
Case,  recommending  him  for  promotion  on  account  of 
marked  bravery,  and  Captain  Cooper,  who  was  an  eye 
witness  to  the  scene,  says  that  he  saw  Sergeant  Lathe 
shoot  five  men  in  as  many  minutes  ;  but  the  sergeant 
modestly  adds,  "  I  saw  Henry  Ford  kill  more  of  them 
than  I  did,  and  none  of  them  were  farther  from  us  than 
across  a  common  room,  and  some  not  so  far."  The 
story  and  its  sequel  of  to-day  are  given  in  the  sergeant's 
own  words. 


1864.]  THE  BATTLE  OF  THE  CRATER.  507 

THE    STORY. 

"  The  officer  that  I  shot  was  standing  on  the  top  of  the 
bank,  which  brought  his  feet  some  higher  than  my  head. 
He  was  not  more  than  five  or  six  yards  from  me,  and  as 
I  was  looking  him  square  in  the  face  when  I  fired,  I 
could  not  help  seeing  the  effect  of  the  shot,  which  struck 
him  in  the  right  breast,  killing  him  instantly.  I  thought 
at  the  time  that  he  was  a  general  officer,  as  he  wore  a 
general  officer's  sword  and  belt,  but  the  others  that  I 
shot  were  men  who  were  trying  to  hit  me.  Finally  they 
got  one  in  on  me,  and  I  ran  back  into  the  crater.  Lieu 
tenant  John  Sampson  tied  a  handkerchief  around  my 
arm,  which  partially  stopped  the  bleeding,  and  I  then 
ran  up  on  top  of  the  bank  of  the  crater  toward  our  lines. 

"A  shower  of  bullets  fell  around  me  as  soon  as  I  got 
up  where  the  rebels  could  see  me,  but  I  made  my  way 
down  below  the  bank,  where  I  found  I  was  safe  so  long 
as  I  kept  out  of  sight.  After  a  little  time  I  started  out 
again,  and  went  as  fast  as  I  could  considering  that  the 
ground  was  covered  with  dead  and  wounded  men. 
When  I  came  to  our  old  breastworks,  which  were  not 
very  high,  I  cleared  them  at  one  leap,  and  landed 
astride  the  back  of  a  Dutchman  who  was  sitting  in  the 
trench,  but  as  I  didn't  understand  German,  nor  he  Eng 
lish,  I  have  never  been  quite  certain  whether  my  explana 
tion  of  the  circumstances  was  satisfactory  to  him  or  not. 

"  I  was  safe,  however,  and  after  looking  myself  over 
for  more  bullet-holes, — for  when  I  was  on  top  of  the 
bank  the  air  was  as  full  of  bullets  as  if  a  swarm  of  bees 
were  buzzing  about  my  ears — I  considered  myself  lucky 
to  get  off  with  four  bullet-holes  in  different  parts  of  my 
clothing  besides  the  shot  through  my  hand. 


508  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [July, 

"Then  I  made  my  way  back  to  the  field  hospital, 
which  nearly  covered  a  field  of  I  should  say  about  fifty 
acres,  where  the  surgeons  were  busily  at  work  caring  for 
the  wounded,  who  were  stretched  out  on  the  ground,  on 
rudely  constructed  benches,  on  old  tables,  or  anything 
that  could  be  extemporized  for  an  operating  table.  I 
walked  around  there  all  the  afternoon,  and  saw  men  who 
were  wounded  in  every  conceivable  way,  from  cannon 
and  shell  wounds,  and  burns  from  exploding  shells,  with 
bowels  torn  out  and  bodies  gashed  and  mangled  from 
bayonet  thrusts,  or  with  heads  and  faces  smashed  almost 
beyond  recognition  by  blows  from  a  musket-breech, 
though  by  far  the  greater  part  of  the  wounds  were  made 
by  the  deadly  Minie  balls  that  were  poured  in  on  us 
while  we  were  penned  up  in  the  crater.  The  ambu 
lances  kept  coming  onto  the  field  loaded  up  with  men, 
and  some  of  them  would  be  dead  when  they  were  taken 
out,  but  altogether  there  must  have  been  several  thousand 
of  the  wounded  there  in  that  field. 

"  I  asked  almost  every  surgeon  I  came  to  if  he 
would  n't  dress  my  hand  next,  and  the  invariable  answer 
was  '  No  ;  there  are  lots  of  men  here  that  will  die  if  not 
attended  to  to-day,  and  you  won't !  That  was  pretty 
cold  comfort,  though  true  enough ;  but  I  finally  got  it 
dressed  by  an  old  white-headed  surgeon,  who  belonged 
to  the  Thirty-second  Maine  I  believe,  and  I  have  since 
been  told  that  it  was  a  wonderful  piece  of  surgery, 
though  I  barely  escaped  death  by  lockjaw  at  the  time 
and  have  suffered  very  much  pain  ever  since. 

"Just  at  night  my  brother  came  over  to  the  field  in  search 
of  me,  and  he  told  me  that  himself  and  four  others  were 
all  that  there  was  left  of  the  twenty-three  men  I  had 
commanded  in  the  battle — ten  of  the  number  were  there 


1864.]  THE  BATTLE  OF  THE  CRATER.  509 

in  the  hospital  with  me,  and  all  were  suffering  from  gun 
shot  wounds.  It  was  getting  dark  by  this  time,  but  my 
brother  happened  to  get  sight  of  my  clothes.  He  took 
one  look,  and  that  was  enough.  «  For  heaven's  sake, 
Jim,'  said  he,  'take  off  those  clothes  and  let  me  wash 
them,  for  they  fairly  make  me  sick!'  I  hadn't  thought 
of  them  before,  but  they  were  soaked  with  blood  from 
my  own  wound  and  covered  with  scraps  of  flesh,  brains, 
and  everything  else  that  could  fly  from  men  that  had 
been  torn  to  pieces  by  shot  and  shell.  He  gave  me  his 
clothes  to  wear  while  he  could  wash  and  dry  mine,  and 
by  making  a  clothes-pole  of  himself  before  the  camp-fire 
that  night,  had  them  ready  for  me  to  put  on  before  he 
went  back  to  the  company  in  the  morning. 

"My  brother  served  until  Lee  surrendered  at  Appo- 
mattox,  in  the  spring  of  1865,  but  I  never  went  back.  I 
was  recommended  for  promotion  for  marked  bravery, 
but  spent  the  next  five  months  in  the  Mount  Pleasant 
hospital  at  Washington,  and  was  discharged  December 
16,  1864,  having  served  about  two  and  a  half  years  and 
participated  in  more  than  a  dozen  battles." 

THE  SEQUEL. 

"  In  September,  1893,  more  than  twenty-nine  years 
after  the  Battle  of  the  Mine,  I  visited  Petersburg,  and 
went  over  to  the  crater  in  company  with  two  Confederates 
who  had  fought  in  that  battle  and  the  man  who  owned 
the  place.  We  looked  over  the  ground,  which  of  course 
was  very  much  changed,  though  the  crater  was  untouched 
save  by  storms  and  time.  We  looked  over  and  talked 
over  about  everything  we  could  think  of,  and  the  owner 
of  the  land  said  there  had  not  been  a  man  there  since  the 
war  closed  that  had  located  and  described  things  as  well 


510  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [July, 

as  I  had  done,  and  asked  me  how  it  was  that  I  could 
remember  so  well.  I  told  him  I  did  not  know  how  I 
could  ever  forget  it. 

"  When  we  came  to  one  particular  place  in  the  works 
I  turned  to  the  Confederate  veterans  and  said,  "Can 
either  of  you  tell  me  the  name  of  a  Confederate  officer 
that  fell  from  the  bank  exactly  there,  shot  through  the 
right  breast?'  '  Yes,'  said  one  of  them  ;  '  I  can  tell  you 
who  it  was.'  '  Well,'  said  I,  '  I  happened  to  know  where 
the  bullet  hit  him,  for  I  was  looking  right  at  the  spot.' 
1  You  are  the  very  man  who  killed  my  chum  !'  exclaimed 
the  veteran.  'If  you  hadn't  done  it  you  would  n't  have 
known  anything  about  it.' 

"My  son  was  there  with  me,  and  heard  all  that  was 
said,  and  I  think  I  can  safely  say  that  mine  was  an 
experience  that  few  men  who  visit  the  old  battle-fields 
of  the  war  could  or  would  wish  to  duplicate.  I  make  no 
claim  to  having  killed  a  man  until  I  was  cornered  in  that 
infernal  den,  where  I  had  no  hope  of  getting  out  alive ; 
then  I  did  as  I  saw  some  others  do — worked  for  all  I  was 
worth,  and  when  I  could  do  no  more  ran  the  gauntlet  of 
a  whole  brigade,  whose  every  man  seemed  anxious  to 
hit  me.  This  was  our  worst  battle,  but  Spottsylvania 
and  some  others  were  nearly  as  bad,  and  looking  back 
now  it  seems  like  a  horrible  dream,  which  none  but  those 
that  were  in  it  can  ever  fullv  realize." 


HONOR  THE  BRAVE  AND  TRUE. 

Captain  Hough,  who  commanded  the  regiment  in  this 
battle,  after  fighting  bravely  nearly  all  the  forenoon  was 
at  last  frightfully  wounded,  and  left  for  dead  by  his 
friends.  The  enemy  thought  him  so  nearly  so  that  it 


LIEUT.  DAVID  F.  CHENEY,  Co.  C. 


1864.]  THE  BA  TTLE  OF  THE  CRA  TER.  $11 

was  not  worth  while  to  carry  him  from  the  field,  and 
actually  dug  his  grave.  But  finding  at  the  expira 
tion  of  a  day  or  two  that  he  was  still  alive,  they  carried 
him  to  the  city,  from  whence  later  in  the  fall  he  was 
released  by  exchange,  and  ultimately  recovered  from 
his  wounds,  though  unfit  for  further  service. 

When  at  last  the  troops  were  ordered  to  retire,  each 
man  for  himself  as  best  he  could,  but  few,  if  any,  of  the 
Ninth  that  were  not  disabled  remained  to  be  captured, 
choosing  rather  to  encounter  the  terrific  storm  of  fire 
from  thousands  of  muskets  and  a  dozen  batteries,  that 
from  three  sides  swept  over  this  miniature  hell  and  the 
open  space  between  it  and  the  Union  lines,  cutting  down 
nearly  one  in  every  three  that  tried  to  escape. 

Lieutenant  Sampson,  a  brave  and  efficient  officer,  lost 
his  life  in  this  way.  Lieutenants  Green  and  Cheney 
were  wounded  during  the  day,  and  Lieutenant  Drew 
was  captured.  Besides  these,  and  Captain  Hough  al 
ready  mentioned,  the  regiment  lost  in  killed,  wounded, 
and  missing,  ninety-two,  or  about  half  of  the  whole 
number  engaged.  Some  ten  or  twelve  of  these  are 
known  to  have  been  killed,  and  of  the  remainder  nearly 
all  were  wounded,  but  many  of  them  left  in  the  enemy's 
hands. 

The  colors  were  gloriously  borne,  and  in  the  thick  of 
the  fight,  despite  the  defeat  and  disaster  of  that  fatal  day. 
Sergeant  Button,  who  carried  the  State  colors,  escaped 
unharmed,  but  the  National  colors  fell  three  times, — first 
from  the  hands  of  Corporal  Parsons  of  Company  D,  who 
had  taken  them  at  Spottsvlvania  when  Sergeant  Pren- 
dable  was  wounded,  and  bravely  and  proudly  borne 
them  since.  One  of  the  guard  immediately  seized  them, 
but  was  struck  down  only  a  few  minutes  later.  Another 


512  NINTH  NE  W  HAMPSHIRE.  [July, 

of  the  guard  shared  the  same  fate,  and  the  colors  were 
then  taken  by  Lieutenant  Harlow,  who  brought  them 
off  the  field  in  safety. 

Sergt.  Leander  A.  Wilkins  of  Company  H  recaptured 
the  flag  of  the  Twenty-first  Massachusetts  regiment,  and 
brought  it  off  the  field,  for  which  gallant  deed  he  after 
wards  was  awarded  a  medal  of  honor  by  the  war  de 
partment. 

In  some  respects  the  Battle  of  the  Mine  was  the  most 
horrible  and  bloody  of  any  in  which  the  Ninth  New 
Hampshire  was  engaged  during  the  war,  but  the  heroic 
conduct  of  that  little  band  of  veterans  in  that  fierce  con 
test  with  a  bitter  and  determined  foe,  the  price  of  whose 
valor  was  the  loss  of  nearly  fifty  per  cent,  of  its  total 
strength,  is  deserving  of  the  highest  praise. 


CHAPTER  XV. 

SHIFTING  SCENES  AND  VARYING  FORTUNES. 

It  is  only  after  the  battle — after  both  armies  have  aban 
doned  the  contested  ground — that  the  full  horror  of  a 
struggle  where  thousands  of  men  have  been  engaged  can 
be  fully  realized.  Everywhere  along  the  front  are  dead 
and  wounded  men,  dead  and  wounded  horses,  dismounted 
guns,  and  scattered  sabres,  swords,  muskets,  and  accou 
trements.  There  are  dead  men  among  the  ripening 
wheat,  in  the  clover  over  which  the  honey-bees  are  hov 
ering,  in  the  shadows  of  the  peach  trees. 

Here  is  the  field  where  the  hospital  corps  are  caring 
for  the  wounded  who  were  brought,  or  dragged  their 
halting  footsteps,  from  the  scene  of  disaster  before  the 
final  retreat  left  the  enemy  in  possession.  Blood  drips 
from  their  wounds  as  they  are  lifted  from  the  ambulances 
and  laid  upon  the  grassy  sod  :  there  is  blood  on  the  rocks 
and  bushes — blood  everywhere,  save  in  the  heavens 
above,  where  God's  own  blue  still  overspreads  a  suffer 
ing,  sorrowing  world.  But  between  the  lines  the  dead 
and  wounded  still  lie  on  the  field,  where  the  scorching 
rays  of  the  July  sun  beat  down  upon  them  and  mock 
their  helpless  misery. 

Late  in  the  afternoon  of  the  3oth  a  flag  of  truce  was 
hoisted  on  the  Union  line,  and  was  duly  responded  to  by 
the  enemy.  Permission  to  remove  the  wounded  and  bury 
the  dead  was  refused,  but  the  Sanitary  commission  were 


XXXIII 


514  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [August, 

allowed  to  give  each  one  of  the  wounded  a  canteen  of 
milk-punch  and  another  of  water.  Guns  were  stuck  in 
the  ground,  bayonet  down,  with  pieces  of  shelter  tent 
fastened  under  the  hammers  so  as  to  afford  some  slight 
protection  to  the  hapless  victims  of  a  vengeful  foe.  The 
night  wore  slowly  away,  each  army  keeping  a  watchful 
eye  upon  the  other's  movements ;  but  during  the  follow 
ing  day,  when  the  tense  muscles  had  been  allowed  to 
relax  a  little,  terms  were  finally  agreed  upon,  and  the 
morning  of  August  i  was  set  apart  for  the  humane  yet 
mournful  duty. 

At  an  early  hour  a  line  of  blue  and  gray  sentinels  was 
established  near  the  center  of  the  space  between  the  lines, 
and  through  this  grim  cordon  the  dead  and  wounded 
were  brought  by  the  enemy  to  where  friendly  hands  were 
waiting  to  receive  them.  There  was  but  little  conversa 
tion  indulged  in  between  the  two  armies  during  the  time 
devoted  to  this  sad  task ;  the  men  sitting  in  almost  utter 
silence  upon  the  breastworks,  with  no  fear  of  being  made 
a  target  to  the  unerring  rifle  of  the  sharpshooter  in  so 
awesome  a  presence. 

The  long,  shallow  trenches  have  been  dug  on  the  hill 
side,  in  the  shadow  of  the  peach  orchard,  and  tenderly 
and  reverently  the  dead  are  laid  side  by  side  in  the  all- 
embracing  bosom  of  mother  earth.  There  is  only  a  brief 
search  for  identity  ;  they  need  no  eulogy  or  prayer  :  they 
have  given  their  lives  for  their  country.  There  they 
rest :  friends  in  these  trenches,  foes  in  those  over  there. 
So  let  them  sleep,  till  the  trump  of  the  archangel  shall 
wake  them  !  As  for  the  living — God  help  them  !  The 
flag  of  truce  is  no  longer  floating  in  the  breeze  :  the  firing 
has  begun,  and  they  are  back  in  the  trenches  ! 


1864.]       SHIFTING  SCENES  AND   VARYING  FORTUNES.       515 

At  nine  o'clock  in  the  evening  of  the  3ist  of  July  the 
Ninth  New  Hampshire  was  again  doing  duty  at  the  front, 
the  Second  division  relieving  the  troops  of  the  Eighteenth 
corps,  who  had  occupied  the  trenches  the  preceding 
twenty-four  hours.  Every  available  man  had  been 
pressed  into  service,  in  order  to  cover  the  allotted  portion 
of  the  line,  and  as  there  was  no  relief  until  the  evening 
of  the  3d  of  August  the  days  and  nights  seemed  doubly 
tedious  in  their  weary  length.  The  weather  continued 
warm,  and  as  it  was  remarkably  quiet  along  the  lines, 
except  at  a  few  points  where  there  was  an  occasional 
sharp  fusillade,  the  men  had  a  fairly  good  chance  to 
sleep,  though  as  a  precautionary  measure  half  the  force 
were  kept  awake  all  night  and  all  of  them  from  three  in 
the  morning  until  daylight.  But  the  situation  at  its  best 
was  dismal  enough  to  make  the  stoutest-hearted  home 
sick,  and  called  for  all  the  patience  and  pluck  that  the 
men  could  muster. 

A  pleasant  episode  on  the  afternoon  of  the  3d  was  the 
visit  of  a  Mrs.  Morse,  from  the  Sanitary  commission,  to 
whom  the  boys  were  already  indebted  for  many  comforts. 
The  sight  of  a  kindly  woman's  face  was  even  more  wel 
come  to  the  homesick  soldiers  than  the  good  thing's  she 

o  o 

distributed  so  freely  among  them,  and  when  she  still  far 
ther  proved  her  courage  by  borrowing  a  musket  and 
firing  three  or  four  shots  at  the  enemy,  she  was  enthu 
siastically  applauded.  The  boys  had  made  quite  a  num 
ber  of  friends  in  the  commission,  and  so  were  often  in 
receipt  of  favors  from  them.  They  felt  no  hesitancy  in 
accepting  contributions  from  their  supplies,  for  the  hard 
work  and  exposure  to  which  they  had  been  subjected  was 
telling  even  on  the  strongest,  and  comfort  and  help  were 
sorely  needed. 


5 1 6  NINl^H  NE  W  HAMPSHIRE.  [August, 

While  off  duty  on  the  5th  the  regiment  attended  the 
service  for  the  dead,  which  was  held  at  brigade  head 
quarters.  Officers  and  men  alike  seemed  to  feel  the 
solemnity  of  the  occasion,  and  it  could  not  have  well  been 
otherwise.  Only  four  commissioned  officers  and  barely 
a  hundred  men  were  left :  Would  any  be  spared  to  bear 
to  the  waiting  friends  at  home  the  last  fond  messages  of 
the  loved  and  lost?  It  was  with  sad  hearts  that  they 
began  their  tour  of  duty  in  the  pits  that  evening. 

Writing  to  the  home  friends  on  the  following  day,  Ser 
geant  Burnham  gives  a  characteristic  sketch  of  their  sur 
roundings,  and,  soldier  like,  makes  the  best  of  the  cir 
cumstances.  Dating  his  letter  "  In  a  bomb-proof,  near 
Petersburg,"  he  then  writes  as  follows  : 

"  '  In  a  bomb-proof?  Well,  into  what  sort  of  a  hole 
has  he  tumbled  now,  I  wonder  ! '  I  can  imagine  you  ex 
claiming  as  you  commence  this,  so  before  going  farther 
I  will  tell  you.  Into  the  trenches,  where  we  are  obliged 
to  spend  regularly  half  our  days  and  nights  watching 
Johnny,  he  oftentimes  very  unceremoniously  and  impo 
litely  throws  quantities  of  rotten  iron  and  such  like  mis 
siles,  which  are  extremely  unpleasant  to  have  flying  in 
pieces  about  your  ears.  No  amount  of  reasoning,  re 
monstrance,  or  retaliation  availing  to  make  our  friends 
in  gray  desist  from  these  disagreeable  practices,  the  most 
of  the  officers  and  a  good  many  of  the  men  have  dug 
holes,  or  small  cellars,  just  in  the  rear  of  the  rifle-pits, 
covered  them  with  logs  and  rails,  and  then  shovelled  the 
dirt  back  on  top  of  them.  These  dens — they  are  usually 
just  about  large  enough  for  a  medium-sized  beast — are 
dubbed  '  bomb-proofs,'  and  into  them,  when  not  on  duty, 
we  crawl  and  lie  in  comparative  safety,  and  in  some 
measure  are  also  protected  from  the  heat,  which  on  some 


1864.]      SHIFTING  SCENES  AND   VARYING  FORTUNES.       517 

days  is  very  oppressive.  In  one  of  these  Lieutenant 
Robinson  and  myself  have  established  our  head-quarters, 
and  are  as  much  at  our  ease  as  though  the  enemy  were 
miles  instead  of  rods  away." 

During  the  next  relief  a  petition  for  a  regimental  fur 
lough  was  drawn  up,  and  many  a  bright  picture  was  con 
jured  up  by  the  camp-fire  that  night,  at  the  mere  thought 
of  seeing  home  and  friends  once  more,  and  many  a  poor 
fellow's  dreams  were  tinged  with  his  last  waking  recol 
lection.  On  the  pth  several  boxes  from  home — some  of 
them  sent  months  before — arrived,  and  while  most  of  the 
contents  were  ruined  it  was  some  comfort  to  the  boys 
to  know  that  they  were  still  held  in  remembrance.  The 
zoth  was  passed  in  the  trenches,  the  men  suffering  tor 
tures  from  the  fierce  heat  and  the  swarms  of  flies  that 
seemed  to  be  determined  to  devour  them.  Firing  be 
tween  the  pickets  was  yet  kept  up,  but  few  casualties 
were  reported. 

The  regiment  was  paid  off  on  the  I2th,  drawing  four 
months'  wages.  Another  crumb  of  comfort  was  the 
report  that  Mobile  had  been  attacked  and  the  enemy 
gloriously  defeated.  That  night  the  Second  corps,  which 
had  previously  been  detailed  for  the  building  of  a  second 
strong  line  of  works  in  the  rear  of  the  first  line,  was 
moved  off  in  the  direction  of  the  James  river,  and  on  the 
following  morning  the  regiment,  instead  of  entering  the 
pits,  was  detailed  for  the  completion  of  the  works.  The 
night  of  the  I4th  they  were  again  at  the  front,  but  shortly 
after  midnight  were  relieved  by  troops  from  the  Eight 
eenth  corps  and  moved  back  into  the  woods.  Shortly 
after  daylight  they  moved  still  farther  to  the  rear,  and 
relieved  a  portion  of  the  Fifth  corps. 

Although   the   change  in  position  covered  only  about 


5 1 8  NINTH  NE  W  HAMPSHIRE.  [August, 

two  miles  of  territory,  still  the  men  found  themselves 
quite  differently  and  much  more  pleasantly  situated  than 
they  had  been  during  the  two  months  they  had  passed  in 
the  vicinity  of  the  "  Mine."  Here  the  main  lines  were 
about  a  thousand  yards  apart,  with  lines  of  pickets  and 
videttes,  or  sentinels,  between.  The  vidette  lines  were 
so  close  together  that  the  men  could  readily  converse 
with  each  other,  and  there  was  a  mutual  understanding 
that  there  should  be  no  firing  unless  an  advance  or  attack 
was  attempted  on  either  side. 

About  one  o'clock  in  the  morning  of  the  iyth  the  quiet 
of  the  camp  was  broken  by  a  terrific  cannonade,  which, 
beginning  on  the  right,  gradually  extended  itself  along 
the  line.  The  regiment  was  ordered  behind  the  breast 
works,  and  as  no  further  duty  was  demanded  of  them 
they  interested  themselves  in  watching  the  display  of  fire 
and  thunder.  Shell  were  the  missiles  mostly  used,  and 
these — their  burning  fuses  leaving  a  streak  of  fire  to  mark 
their  track  as  they  hiss  through  the  air — either  suddenly 
ended  their  career  in  a  flash,  a  sharp  report,  and  a  whir 
ring  of  fragments  in  all  directions  ;  or,  rising  grandly  from 
the  mortars,  described  a  graceful  curve  and  then  plumped 
down,  as  if  hurled  from  the  clouds,  upon  their  victims. 
Indeed,  the  terror  and  grandeur  of  a  scene  like  this — the 
sudden  rousing  of  the  camp  from  its  quiet  slumber,  the 
transition  to  such  sights  and  sounds  as  these,  the  hurry 
ing  of  thousands  of  men  to  their  respective  posts  or  duties, 
the  buzz  of  their  excited  conversation,  the  sharp,  quick 
tones  of  command  rising  distinctly  above  the  tumult  of 
all  other  sounds — is  almost  beyond  the  power  of  pen  to 
depict  or  pencil  to  portray. 

Almost  every  night  deserters  from  the  Confederate 
army  would  come  into  the  lines  at  such  points  as  they 


1864.]      SHIFTING  SCENES  AND   VARYING  FORTUNES.       519 

could  reach  without  too  much  danger,  and  some  morn 
ings,  if  the  night  before  had  been  dark  or  rainy,  the 
provost-marshal  would  have  a  squad  of  fifty  or  more  to 
send  to  the  rear.  They  all  told  the  same  story — that 
thousands  would  come  over  if  they  could  secure  favorable 
opportunities  and  were  sure  of  good  treatment.  The  lay 
of  the  land  in  the  vicinity  of  the  Ninth  was  not  very 
favorable  for  such  maneuvres,  but  one  bright  little  chap, 
about  seventeen  years  old,  from  the  Eleventh  Florida, 
slipped  past  the  watchful  pickets  and  reached  the  Union 
lines  in  safety. 

On  the  i8th  General  Warren  advanced  on  the  left  and 
took  possession  of  the  Weldon  railroad,  and  that  night 
there  was  another  artillery  duel.  On  the  i9th  the  enemy 
shelled  the  position  held  by  the  Ninth  corps,  but  the  corps 
was  relieved  about  noon  and  moved  immediately  to  the 
rear.  Passing  by  a  circuitous  route  to  the  left,  the  First 
division  swung  into  position  just  in  season  to  check  a  furi 
ous  and  what  would  otherwise  have  been  a  successful 
attack  upon  the  right  of  the  Fifth  corps.  The  enemy, 
however,  was  repulsed  with  considerable  loss,  and  the 
Second  division,  moving  out  upon  the  right  of  the  First, 
which  brought  them  into  the  near  vicinity  of  the  railroad, 
threw  out  pickets,  and  passed  a  quiet  but  wet  and  uncom 
fortable  night. 

Early  the  next  morning  the  troops  advanced  some  way 
into  the  woods  at  the  front  of  their  position,  and  tumbled 
about  through  the  brush  nearly  all  the  forenoon,  skir 
mishing  and  reconnoitering  ;  but  nothing  was  seen  or 
heard  of  the  enemy  except  that  Private  Frank  Thurston, 
of  Company  E,  who  had  been  doing  picket  duty  during 
the  night,  captured  two  stragglers  from  the  enemy's  line. 
Thurston,  who  was  barely  sixteen  years  old,  had  enlisted 


520  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [August, 

from  Peterborough  in  the  latter  part  of  December,  1863, 
and  being  a  brave,  manly  little  fellow  had  become  very 
popular  with  his  comrades.  He  heard  a  rustling  in  the 
bushes,  boldly  challenged  the  intruder,  and  found  that 
it  was  a  couple  of  Confederate  stragglers.  He  ordered 
them  to  throw  down  their  arms,  and  marched  his  pris 
oners  in  triumph  to  the  corporal  of  the  guard. 

One  of  the  prisoners  was  subsequently  speaking  about 
the  explosion  of  the  mine,  and  said  that  he  was  one  of 
the  garrison,  and  that  the  first  he  knew  of  what  was 
going  on  was  when  he  found  himself  going  up.  "  I 
went  up  an  awful  ways,"  said  he,  "  and  when  I  was 
coming  down  I  met  another  fellow  going  up,  and  I  don't 
believe  he  's  got  back  yet."  Their  brave  captor  deserved 
a  better  fate  than  to  be  enrolled  among  the  missing  at 
the  Battle  of  Poplar  Grove  Church,  September  30, 
1864,  only  six  weeks  after  his  gallant  exploit. 

A  satisfactory  line  was  finally  established  about  noon 
of  the  2Oth,  and  all  the  afternoon,  though  the  rain  came 
in  torrents,  the  Ninth  New  Hampshire  kept  busily  at 
work  with  pick  and  shovel  till  the  long  line  of  defences 
was  finished,  thus  completing  the  connection  between 
the  Fifth  corps  and  the  old  line  of  works.  Sunday,  the 
2ist,  was  a  quiet  day  for  the  Ninth  corps,  though  the 
enemy  made  a  vigorous  attack  on  the  Fifth,  only  to  be 
as  quickly  and  gallantly  repulsed.  Towards  night  the 
regiment  was  relieved  by  a  part  of  the  Fourth  division, 
and  moved  a  mile  or  so  to  the  rear.  Resting  here  until 
the  latter  part  of  the  following  afternoon,  they  were 
then  moved  to  the  left  of  the  First  brigade  of  the  Second 
division,  and  were  soon  plying  their  familiar  trade  of 
throwing  up  breastworks.  The  intention  seemed  to  be 
to  make  the  line  impregnable,  and  the  New  Hampshire 


1864.]      SHIFTING  SCENES  AND   VARYING  FORTUNES.       521 

boys  were  certainly  doing  their  part  towards  the  accom 
plishment  of  that  object. 

For  a  few  days  now  the  position  of  the  regiment  was 
practically  unchanged,  about  one  third  of  the  men  being 
kept  on  constant  duty.  On  the  3ist  the  regiment  was 
mustered  for  the  months  of  July  and  August,  and  the 
usual  forms  of  inspection  were  gone  through,  despite 
the  sadly  reduced  numbers.  That  day  the  videttes  on 
the  railroad  were  driven  in,  and  fears  of  an  attack  were 
entertained  for  a  time,  but  proved  to  be  groundless. 

The  first  week  in  September  the  regiment  was  alter 
nately  detailed  to  assist  in  building  the  "  corduroy" 
road,  which  was  to  serve 'as  a  connecting  link  between 
the  extreme  left  of  the  Union  line  of  works  and  the 
army  head-quarters  at  City  Point,  and  the  breastworks 
on  the  right.  September  8  the  Second  brigade  moved 
back  to  its  former  quarters  near  the  Weldon  railroad,  the 
Ninth  New  Hampshire  establishing  a  camp  about  half 
way  between  the  front  and  rear  lines  of  works.  It  was 
the  first  regular  camp  away  from  the  line  of  intrench- 
ments  since  the  commencement  of  the  campaign  in 
May,  and  even  though  the  respite  might  be  but  brief  the 
boys  fitted  up  comfortable  quarters  for  themselves,  in 
order  to  make  the  most  of  the  fleeting  opportunity. 

In  addition  to  the  "corduroy"  wagon  road  a  railroad 
track,  running  from  the  City  Point  road  through  to  the 
Six-Mile  tavern  on  the  Weldon  road,  was  now  rapidly 
approaching  completion.  The  railroad,  traversing 
lengthwise  the  fortified  parallelogram  in  which  the  army 
proper  was  enclosed,  gave  the  finishing  touch  to  an 
already  strongly  defensive  position.  The  regular  camp 
routine  was  at  once  entered  upon,  and  proved  to  be  a 
welcome  relief  from  the  incessant  activity  of  the  previous 


522  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [September, 

weeks  and  months.  Ten  days  slipped  by,  the  pleasant 
monotony  of  dress  parades,  inspections,  reviews,  and 
brigade  and  battalion  drills,  broken  only  by  an  occa 
sional  tour  of  picket  or  fatigue  duty.  It  is  only  meet 
that  the  following  Circular  Order,  a  merited  recognition 
of  valorous  conduct  and  hardships  heroically  endured, 
which  was  issued  during  the  stay  at  this  camp,  should 
be  given  place  here. 

HEAD-QUARTERS  2d  BRIG.  2d  Div.  gth  A.  C. 

NEAR  WELDON  R.  R.,  Va.,  Sept.  14,  1864. 
CIRCULAR  ORDERS. 

The  General  Commanding  takes  this  opportunity  to  express  to  the 
officers  and  men  of  this  Brigade  his  high  appreciation  of  their  gallantry 
and  noble  conduct  as  soldiers,  whether  displayed  at  a  mere  review,  on 
the  bloody  field  of  battle,  or  amidst  the  harassing  fatigue  of  the  march. 

Never  did  troops  display  higher  qualities  as  soldiers  than  have  those 
of  this  Command  since  crossing  the  Rapidan  on  the  5th  of  May  last, 
and  never  did  patriots  win  a  nobler  record,  than  those  who  have 
endured  the  hardships  and  braved  the  perils  of  this  memorable  cam 
paign. 

Every  soldier  and  every  officer  has  a  right  to  feel — as  your  General 
does — a  just  pride  in  his  regiment  and  in  his  Brigade. 

By  Command  of  Brig.  Genl.  Griffin, 

IRA  G.  WILKINS, 

Lieut,  and  A.  A.  A.  G. 
C.  O.,  Qth  N.  H.  Vols. 

September  20  came  the  news  of  Sheridan's  glorious 
victory  in  the  Shenandoah  valley,  and  hurrahs  for  gal 
lant  "  Phil  "  and  the  old  flag  woke  the  echoes  of  camp 
and  forest  in  every  direction.  The  following  day  a 
salute  in  honor  of  Sheridan's  victory  was  fired  by  the 
artillery  all  along  the  line — a  proceeding  which  the 
enemy  could  hardly  be  expected  to  regard  with  favor, 
but  to  which  they  were  nevertheless  obliged  to  submit. 


1864.]       SHIFTING  SCENES  AND   VARYING  FORTUNES.       523 

Sunday,  the  25th,  opened  with  the  regular  routine. 
Soon  after  inspection  the  pay-rolls  were  received  and 
signed,  the  paymaster  settled  down  to  his  part  of  the 
business,  and  everything  was  as  quiet  as  a  Sunday  in 
the  country.  Orders  had  been  received,  to  equip  the 
Ninth  New  Hampshire  with  a  new  style  of  gun,  which 
the  authorities  desired  to  test,  and  the  change  was  about 
to  be  made  when  word  came  to  break  camp  immedi 
ately,  and  in  less  than  half  an  hour  the  troops  were  on 
the  road  towards  City  Point.  The  Suffolk  railroad  was 
reached  about  dark,  and  the  troops  bivouacked  for  the 
night.  With  the  coming  of  the  morning  orders  to  move 
were  momentarily  expected,  but  it  was  late  in  the  after 
noon  when  the  word  was  finally  given  to  establish  a  tem 
porary  camp  in  their  present  location. 

These  rough,  and  far  from  pleasant,  quarters  were 
vacated  on  the  morning  of  the  28th,  and  the  troops  were 
moved  back  to  the  ground  they  had  left  so  hurriedly 
three  days  before.  The  camp-ground  with  all  its  con 
veniences  had  been  partially  taken  possession  of  by  some 
Fifth  corps  hustlers,  but  the  unwelcome  intruders  were 
soon  dislodged,  and  before  night  the  old  order  of  things 
again  held  sway. 

Alas  for  the  mutability  of  human  affairs !  Shortly 
after  midnight  orders  came  to  turn  out,  pack  up  all  sur 
plus  baggage  and  send  it  to  City  Point,  and  be  ready  to 
move  by  four  o'clock  with  four  days  rations  and  sixty 
rounds  of  ammunition.  The  day  wore  away,  and  at 
sunset  the  regiment  was  still  on  the  old  camp-ground, 
though  with  everything  packed  up,  muskets  stacked, 
and  in  readiness  to  move  at  a  moment's  notice. 


524  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [September, 

THE    NINTH    NEW    HAMPSHIRE   AT    POPLAR   GROVE 
CHURCH    AND    THE    PEGRAM    HOUSE. 

For  some  days  previous  to  the  3Oth  of  September 
preparations  had  been  quietly  making  for  the  dealing  of 
a  heavy  blow  to  the  Confederate  forces,  and  on  the 
morning  of  that  day  the  Fifth  corps,  moving  out  to  the 
left  from  their  own  works,  succeeded  in  capturing  the 
enemy's  outworks  at  a  point  near  Poplar  Grove  church. 
The  enemy  at  once  retreated,  and  the  Second  division  of 
the  Ninth  corps  pushed  on  past  the  victorious  Fifth  in 
hot  pursuit  of  the  fleeing  foe,  closely  followed  by  the 
rest  of  the  corps.  The  Second  brigade  was  in  front 
and  in  column,  with  the  exception  of  two  small  regiments 
in  line  on  either  flank  and  a  skirmish  line  in  front,  the 
Ninth  New  Hampshire  having  the  head  of  the  column. 

About  a  mile  from  the  South  Side  railroad  the  enemy 
was  encountered.  The  Ninth  and  three  or  four  other 
regiments  were  thrown  upon  the  line,  and  a  charge  was 
ordered.  The  men  rushed  forward  with  enthusiasm, 
and  quickly  drove  the  enemy  from  the  buildings  and 
slightly  elevated  ridges  where  they  had  made  their 
stand.  The  enemy's  main  works  were  nowr  in  plain 
view,  and  toward  these,  in  close  pursuit  of  the  fugitives,  the 
troops,  flushed  and  eager,  pressed  forward.  They  had 
advanced  but  a  few  rods,  however,  when  heavy  lines  of 
gray-clad  soldiery,  thrice  the  strength  of  those  opposed  to 
them,  came  pouring  over  the  breastworks.  Into  these 
sharp  and  destructive  volleys  were  fired,  even  as  the  men 
fell  slowly  back  to  the  buildings  and  fences  on  the  ridge 
they  had  just  passed.  Here  they  stood  their  ground  until 
their  rifles  flashed  almost  in  the  faces  of  the  advancing 
foe. 


1864.]       SHIFTING  SCENES  AND   VARYING  FORTUNES.       525 

They  checked,  and  would  have  driven  back  those  in 
their  front,  but  their  flanks  were  soon  enveloped  by  the 
longer  line  of  the  enemy.  The  supporting  column  was 
too  far  in  the  rear  to  come  to  their  aid,  and  again,  and 
for  the  last  time  in  the  history  of  the  Ninth,  it  became 
"  Legs  versus  Liberty."  Many,  however,  did  not  start 
until  it  was  too  late,  and  their  retreat  was  cut  off;  while 
others  were  struck  down  by  the  bullets  of  the  foe  in  run 
ning  the  gauntlet  of  their  fire,  which  swept  the  hundred 
or  more  rods  of  open  field  between  the  buildings  and  a 
sheltering  forest  of  pines  in  the  rear.  A  few  re-enforce 
ments  had  reached  this  point,  and  for  a  short  time  the 
now  completely  disorganized,  but  not  demoralized,  reg 
iments  rallied  their  scattered  forces  :  but  their  line  was 
not  yet  long  enough  for  that  of  the  enemy,  and  disputing 
the  ground  almost  inch  by  inch,  they  fell  slowly  back  to 
the  Pegram  house,  a  half  mile  farther  to  the  rear.  Here 
a  stand  was  once  more  made,  and  the  advance  of  the 
enemy  checked,  the  fighting  continuing  until  nightfall. 
What  of  the  Ninth  that  could  be  collected  was  on  duty 
at  the  front  during  the  night. 

The  next  morning  the  enemy  commenced  a  furious 
cannonade  upon  this  position,  and  appeared  to  be  about 
to  attack  it  with  a  heavy  force  :  the  line  was  too  weak 
and  extended  to  be  held,  and  was  retired  to  the  line  cap 
tured  by  the  Fifth  corps  the  day  before,  at  which  point, 
having  thrown  up  additional  works,  the  next  twenty-four 
hours  were  spent  in  fruitless  waiting  for  an  attack. 
Meanwhile  a  rain-storm  had  set  in,  and,  wet  and  weary, 
the  sorely  shattered  remnant  of  the  Ninth,  numbering  less 
than  sixty  muskets,  passed  one  of  the  gloomiest  days  in 
its  three-years  record. 

Lieutenants  Rice  and  Emery,  the  latter  of  whom  was 


526  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [September, 

serving  at  the  time  as  an  aid  on  General  Griffin's  staff, 
had  been  killed ;  Lieutenant  Allen  was  wounded  and 
Lieutenant  Quimby  captured,  and  the  killed,  wounded, 
and  missing  from  the  ranks  numbered  nearly  one  hun 
dred  and  twenty.  And  this  out  of  a  total  of  consider 
ably  less  than  two  hundred,  nearly  half  of  whom  were 
recruits  or  convalescents  who  were  wholly  unfit  for 
active  duty.  Fully  one  half  of  the  total  loss  of  the  regi 
ment  was  in  killed  and  wounded,  but  all  the  former  and 
many  of  the  latter,  as  well  as  all  of  the  missing,  were  in 
the  hands  of  the  enemy. 

So  was  also  the  State  colors.  The  bearer,  Corporal 
Brown,  who  had  bravely  taken  the  National  colors  when 
they  fell  for  the  second  time  on  the  field  at  Petersburg, 
delayed  his  retreat  too  long  when  the  regiment  was 
obliged  to  fall  back,  and  was  overtaken  and  captured 
with  his  charge  ;  though  not,  as  was  afterwards  learned, 
till  he  had  stripped  the  colors  from  the  staff  and  torn 
them  into  shreds.  From  all  blame  or  dishonor  for  the 
loss  of  these  the  regiment  was  exculpated  in  General 
Orders  from  army  head-quarters.  The  old,  worn,  and 
shot-riddled  "  Stars  and  Stripes,"  though  bearing  fresh 
tokens  of  an  enemy's  hatred  in  its  tattered  folds,  still 
remained  to  the  regiment,  and  seemed  dearer  than  ever. 
All  through  the  fight,  and  where  the  leaden  hail  fell 
thickest,  there  floated  the  starry  banner  of  Freedom, 
which  had  been  borne  by  Sergeant  Dutton,  of  Company 
E,  since  the  morning  of  July  3Oth,  he  having  previous  to 
that  date  carried  the  State  colors  from  the  commence 
ment  of  the  campaign. 


1864.]       SHIFTING  SCENES  AND   VARYING  FORTUNES. 

UNDER   THE    OLD    FLAG. 
By  Sergeant  Dutton. 

On  the  morning  of  the  3Oth  of  September  (we  had 
been  under  orders  for  three  days,  and  had  everything 
packed  up  ready  to  start  at  a  moment's  notice)  we  moved 
to  the  left,  following  the  Fifth  corps,  which  had  made  a 
charge  upon  a  new  line  of  the  enemy  and  carrie4  it  with 
little  loss.  Passing  the  Pegram  house,  to  a  belt  of  woods 
across  a  field,  and  through  the  woods,  we  then  formed  in 
line  in  a  road  under  a  bank  running  parallel  with  them. 

As  we  lay  there  under  the  bank  orders  came  to  charge. 
We  went  over  a  little  rise  of  ground,  over  a  picket  fence, 
through  the  garden  and  yard  of  the  house,  and  across 
the  road  into  an  orchard,  where  we  halted  and  com 
menced  firing.  I  remember  seeing  the  rebels  go  down 
under  our  fire,  and  from  where  I  stood  I  could  see  them 
very  plainly.  The  next  thing  I  heard  was  somebody 
shouting  "Bring  off  the  colors!"  I  looked  hastily 
around  me,  and  found  that  the  men  had  retreated.  I 
ran  back  into  the  road,  and  there,  only  a  few  rods  away, 
the  Johnnies  were  piling  over  the  fence  and  coming  in 
on  our  left ;  so  I  started  for  the  yard. 

When  I  got  to  the  house,  which  had  a  brick  basement, 
I  could  see  that  it  was  full  of  men,  who  had  crowded 
into  it  to  escape  the  bullets,  which  were  flying  tolerably 
thick  about  that  time.  There  was  n't  time  to  do  much 
planning,  and  the  question  in  physics  was  one  that  the 
bullets  would  solve  if  we  didn't.  "  Hurrah,  boys  !  rally 
round  the  flag  ! "  I  shouted,  and  started  for  the  rear. 
The  boys  were  close  behind,  and  over  a  rise  of  ground 
we  went,  then  into  the  woods,  and  from  there  back  to  a 
little  embankment,  where  we  stopped  and  began  to  form 


528  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE,  [October, 

a  line.  General  Griffin  rode  up  to  where  we  were,  and 
saying  "  Sergeant,  here  !  "  stood  me  at  his  horse's  head 
and  called  to  the  men  to  rally  around  us.  It  was  while 
we  were  in  this  position  that  his  horse  was  shot  through 
the  nose. 

By  the  time  we  got  back  to  the  Pegratn  house  it  was 
dark.  I  found  about  sixteen  men,  and  we  put  ourselves 
under  the  charge  of  Lieutenant  Robinson,  the  only 
commissioned  officer  of  the  regiment  that  we  could  find. 
It  was  about  this  time  that  Lieutenant  Emery  was  shot, 
while  carrying  orders  to  the  staff'  of  General  Griffin. 
Here  we  remained  that  night,  the  Fifth  corps  and  artil 
lery,  which  had  made  a  stand  here  also,  being  on  our 
right.  When  daylight  came  it  was  plainly  evident  that 
we  had  been  left  to  our  fate.  The  enemy  soon  formed  a 
line  around  the  battery,  and  about  eight  o'clock  they 
opened  fire  and  charged  on  the  position,  capturing  those 
of  the  brigade  that  remained.  There  were  a  good  many 
of  these,  for  only  a  few  cared  to  take  the  risk  of  retreat 
ing  across  a  field  raked  with  deadly  precision  by  canister 
and  grape  shot.  The  moment  the  first  shot  was  fired, 
however,  I  called  to  the  few  of  our  men  that  were  there 
to  follow  me,  and  we  went  back  over  a  rise  of  ground  to 
where  the  rest  of  the  regiment  had  come  together,  at 
which  place  we  remained  the  rest  of  the  day. 


On  the  morning  of  October  2  the  lines  were  again  ad 
vanced,  the  enemy  falling  back  into  their  works.  A 
picket  line  was  established  well  out  towards  these,  and 
a  line  of  strong  works,  running  past  the  Pegram  house, 
was  begun.  Behind  these,  and  a  little  to  the  left  of  the 
house,  the  Ninth  New  Hampshire  was  stationed.  The 


•' 


CORP.  L.  DWIGHT  DARLING,  Co.  I. 


JAMES  E.  WHITE,  Co.  I. 


WILLIAM  J.  HALL,  Co.  I. 


JAMES  SLYFIELD,  Co.  I. 


1864.]      SHIFTING  SCENES  AND   VARYING  FORTUNES.       529 

following  day  a  squad  of  recruits  and  convalescents 
arrived,  a  few  stragglers  came  back  into  camp,  and 
some  of  the  men  who  had  previously  been  on  duty  else 
where  returned;  so  that  altogether  the  regiment  was 
able  to  report  about  one  hundred  and  fifty  men  for  duty. 
With  these  sensible  additions  to  their  number  the  spirits 
of  the  men  began  to  revive,  and  the  feeling  to  prevail 
that  the  Ninth  New  Hampshire  was  not  yet  quite  anni 
hilated.  Comfortable  quarters  were  soon  erected,  and  a 
regular  routine  of  camp  guard  and  picket  duty  established. 
Life  in  camp  for  the  next  three  weeks  was  of  almost 
unbroken  monotony,  but  what  little  there  was  of  in 
cident  is  aptly  told  in  Sergeant  Burnham's  gossipy  home 
letters.  Under  date  of  the  nth  is  this  : 

"  I  have  fixed  up  a  very  comfortable  '  hotel,'  and  with 
Stearns,  who  returned  about  a  week  ago,  for  a  house 
wife,  and  Button,  who  is  acting  as  sergeant-major  and 
tents  nearer  head-quarters,  for  a  boarder,  I  find  myself 
again  established  in  comparative  quiet  and  comfort,  I 
might  almost  add  luxury.  For  instance,  I  am  writing 
on  a  very  convenient,  even  if  rudely-constructed,  table, 
furnished  with  all  the  necessary  material  for  writing,  a 
good  supply  of  paper,  and  an  excellent  adamantine 
candle.  My  seat  is  my  bunk,  furnished  with  a  splendid 
bed  of  pine  twigs  and  blankets  enough  to  keep  warm 
at  present.  Other  conveniences  are  ranged  around, 
and  the  whole  establishment  presents  a  more  comfort 
able,  cheerful  aspect,  with  the  exception  of  a  fire,  than 
our  quarters  the  first  winter  at  Falmouth.  It  cost  us  not 
over  six  hours'  work,  and  all  simply  from  a  few  boards 
ripped  from  the  Boswell  house — and  knowing  how  to 
use  them. 

"The  following  was  our  bill  of  fare  to-day:  Break- 

XXXIV 


530  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [October, 

fast — Soft  bread  and  butter,  apple  and  blueberry  sauce 
(contributed  by  Button  from  a  supply  from  home), 
coffee.  Dinner — Steak,  fried,  with  pork;  hard-tack, 
soaked  and  fried  :  sauce,  coffee.  Supper — Meat,  same 
as  for  dinner;  potatoes,  toasted  hard-tack.  This  to  be 
sure  is  somewhat  extra,  but  I  am  showing  you  the  bright 
side  of  the  picture  just  now. 

"A  week  ago  Saturday,  4  tack '  with  raw  pork,  a 
piece  of  codfish,  and  a  cup  of  cold  coffee  once  or  twice, 
was  all  I  could  command.  A  cold,  drizzling  rain  was 
in  progress,  and  my  only  protection  was  a  rubber 
blanket  thrown  over  my  shoulders.  During  the  fore 
noon  we  dug  a  rifle-pit,  and  through  the  long  afternoon 
stood  behind  it.  At  night  stuck  up  a  <  shelter,'  and  three 
of  us  crawled  under,  pulled  our  wet  blankets  over  us, 
and  shivered  the  night  away.  But  this  is  a  picture  on 
the  other  side  of  the  canvas.  Fortunately  such  are  not 
frequent  in  the  panorama  we  are  acting. 

"  The  health  of  the  regiment  generally  is  good,  and  I 
might  add  its  spirits  too.  We  miss,  to  be  sure,  the  com 
rades  we  lost  the  other  day ;  yet  the  most  of  them  we 
know  are  unharmed,  and  their  loss  is  all  we  have  to 
mourn,  as  we  now  hold  the  battle-field,  while  success 
has  attended  our  efforts  everywhere  else.  To-night  the 
camp  and  woods  are  ringing  with  loud  and  joyous  cheers 
for  Sheridan,  who  sends  us  word  that  he  has  just  given 
Early  a  third,  and  it  would  seem  a  finishing,  drubbing. 
Probably  a  large  portion  of  his  army  will  be  transferred 
here  in  a  short  time. 

"  Meanwhile  we,  though  quiet,  as  I  have  said,  are 
by  no  means  idle.  Drilling,  re-organizing,  repairing  is 
the  order  of  the  day.  Every  inch  of  the  ground  we  have 
gained  is  being  fortified  in  the  strongest  manner  possible. 


1864-]      SHIFTING  SCENES  AND  VARYING  FORTUNES.       531 

"  We  find,  almost  to  our  surprise,  that  the  old  Ninth 
is  not  used  up  altogether,  and  will  be  shortly,  if  not  as 
good  as  ever,  able  at  least  to  make  quite  a  respectable 
showing.  Similar  remarks  would  apply  to  most  of  the 
old  regiments  ;  while  here  and  there  new  ones,  with  full 
ranks  and  looking  at  a  little  distance  almost  like  a 
brigade,  are  filling  the  places  of  those  whose  terms  are 
expiring.  Wonder  if  this  does  n't  make  Lee  at  least 
uneasy,  as  he  looks  at  his  thin,  and  growing  thinner, 
ranks? 

"  Longer  and  stronger,  too,  grows  the  wall  with  which 
we  are  fencing  him  in.  A  few  weeks  more,  and  it  will 
reach  the  South  Side  railroad,  at  a  greater  or  less  dis 
tance  from  Petersburg  ;  whether  with  or  without  a  severe 
struggle,  remains  to  be  seen — then  the  further  occupa 
tion  of  Petersburg  will  be  as  much  a  disadvantage  to 
Lee  as  to  us.  It  is  in  vain  to  predict  what  he  will  tben 
do,  or  undertake  to  do.  If  he  stays  in  his  fortifications, 
not  only  Richmond  but  his  whole  army  will  be  in  our 
hands  before  spring ;  while  if  he  runs,  or  comes  out  and 
attacks  us,  his  prospects  are  no  brighter.  Johnny  has 
grit,  and  fights  in  a  manner  worthy  of  a  better  cause, 
but  sooner  or  later  he  must  surrender  or  be  exterminated." 

For  two  weeks  the  big  guns  had  been  silent,  and  by  a 
sort  of  truce  between  the  pickets  firing  had  ceased  alto 
gether  along  the  part  of  the  line  near  the  camp  of  the 
Ninth,  and  but  for  the  night  guard  at  the  breastworks 
(one  third  of  the  force  being  kept  on  duty  there  each 
night)  there  was  little  to  remind  one  of  the  proximity  of 
the  foe.  Drills  were  held  frequently,  for  the  benefit  of 
the  new  recruits,  of  whom  about  sixty  had  been  lately 
received.  Counting  in  everything  and  everybody,  sick 


532  NINTH  NE  W  HAMPSHIRE.  [October, 

or  well,  the  Ninth  at  this  date  could  muster  in  the 
vicinity  of  two  hundred  for  rations  if  not  for  duty.  On 
the  morning  of  the  i/jili  the  new  double-shooting  rifles 
with  which  the  regiment  was  to  be  equipped,  the  issuance 
of  which  had  been  so  unceremoniously  interrupted  nearly 
three  weeks  before,  were  brought  from  City  Point  by 
Lieutenant  Robinson. 

During  the  forenoon  there  was  a  military  execution, — 
that  of  a  deserter  from  the  Second  Maryland,  and  the 
troops  of  the  Second  division  not  on  duty  elsewhere  were 
drawn  up  in  a  field  near  the  Feeble  house,  on  three  sides 
of  a  hollow  square  and  facing  inward,  and  outside  of 
these  were  thousands  of  eager  spectators.  At  the  open 
end  of  the  square  was  the  grave  which  the  prisoner  was 
soon  to  fill,  and  near  by  and  facing  this  stood  General 
Potter  and  his  staff  in  full  uniform.  All  the  prelimi 
naries  having  been  arranged,  what  might  be  termed  the 
funeral  procession  appeared.  In  advance  was  the  band, 
playing  funeral  airs,  then  a  detachment  of  guards,  the 
prisoner  accompanied  by  his  chaplain,  four  soldiers  bear 
ing  tlte  coffin,  and  the  detail  for  the  execution,  all  com 
manded  by  a  lieutenant.  The  procession  made  the  cir 
cuit  of  the  square,  then  down  the  centre  to  the  grave, 
and  halted  a  few  paces  in  front  of  it.  The  band  and 
escort  moved  to  one  side,  the  coffin  was  placed  near  the 
grave,  and  the  prisoner,  after  a  moment's  conference 
with  the  chaplain,  was  seated  upon  it,  handcuffed  and 
blindfolded.  The  chaplain  stepped  aside,  the  detail  took 
position  about  ten  paces  in  front  of  the  culprit,  and 
directed  by  signs  from  the  officer  in  charge  quickly 
brought  their  rifles  to  the  position  "  Ready — aim  !" 
With  a  report  as  of  but  one  musket,  though  very  sharp 
and  distinct  amid  the  profound  silence,  the  fatal  Minie" 


CAPT.  JOHN  B.  COOPER. 


1864.]      SHIFTING  SCENES  AND   VARYING  FORTUNES.       533 

balls  sped  through  the  heart  of  the  deserter,  and  he  fell 
back  on  the  coffin,  dead. 

The  troops  then  wheeled,  by  divisions  of  two  com 
panies  each,  into  columns,  and  marching  past  the  corpse, 
moved  off  the  field.  It  was  a  painful  scene,  but  a  due 
regard  for  discipline -required  the  infliction  of  the  death 
penalty,  which  cannot  wholly  be  dispensed  with,  either 
in  civil  or  military  government,  and  this  man  had  been 
convicted  of  the  highest  crime  that  a  soldier  can  com 
mit — desertion  to  the  enemy. 

On  the  I5th,  Captain  Cooper,  who  had  been  in  com 
mand  of  the  regiment  since  the  Battle  of  the  Mine,  left 
for  home  on  a  short  furlough,  and  the  command  devolved 
on  Captain  Hutchinson.  Another  week  of  guard  duty 
and  drills — company  in  the  morning,  and  battalion  in 
the  afternoon — slipped  away.  General  Griffin  evidently 
intended  to  have  his  command  well  posted,  for  he  laid 
out  a  daily  programme  in  which  "  fatigue"  was  the  princi 
pal  item,  with  a  small  margin  for  grumbling.  It  was 
reveille  at  6,  breakfast  7,  surgeon's  call  7  130,  guard 
mount  8,  drill  9  to  n,  dinner  12,  drill  i  to  3,  dress 
parade  5,  supper  7,  tattoo  8,  taps  8  115  ;  with  guard  and 
picket  duty  for  incidentals.  On  the  23d  divine  services 
were  held  at  brigade  head-quarters,  conducted  by  Chap 
lain  Potter  of  the  Thirty-second  Maine, — the  first  for 
nearly  two  months. 

But  the  longest  lane  has  a  turning,  and  on  the  25th 
orders  were  received  at  brigade  head-quarters  to  make 
ready  for  a  move,  and  to  issue  six  days  rations.  The 
following  day  everything  not  actually  needed  by  the 
troops  in  the  field  or  the  garrisons  to  be  left  in  the  forts 
was  sent  to  City  Point,  pack-mules  being  allowed  the 
officers  for  a  minimum  of  baggage.  Small  intrenching 


534  NINTH  NE  W  HAMPSHIRE.  [October, 

spades,  which  could  be  attached  to  the  belt,  and  carried 
about  as  easily  as  a  hatchet,  were  distributed  among  the 
men,  and  everything  seemed  to  indicate  a  big  strike  in 
some  direction. 

Long  before  daylight  on  the  27th  the  men  were  routed 
out  and  ordered  to  strike  tents,  and  without  kindling 
fires  or  making  any  loud  noise,  to  make  ready  for  march 
ing.  The  Thirty-first  Maine  and  the  Seventeenth  Ver 
mont,  from  the  Second  brigade,  were  left  behind  as  a 
garrison,  and  all  being  in  readiness,  the  start  was  made 
at  four  o'clock.  The  Second  division  moved  to  the 
angle  formed  by  the  rear  and  left  flank  lines,  and  at 
dawn  attacked  the  enemy's  pickets,  driving  them  in. 
The  Second  brigade  was  in  line  on  the  extreme  right, 
near  the  old  breastworks,  the  Ninth  New  Hampshire 
being  near  the  left  centre  of  the  brigade  line,  and  having 
forty  men  on  the  skirmish  line. 

That  morning  the  regiment  was  under  the  command 
of  Captain  Hutchinson,  with  Captain  Copp  and  Lieuten 
ant  Robinson  in  charge  of  the  right  and  left  wings 
respectively  ;  and  these  three  constituted  all  the  commis 
sioned  officers  present  for  duty,  the  companies  being 
commanded  by  sergeants,  and  even  corporals. 

The  lines  were  advanced  a  short  distance  during  the 
forenoon,  and  the  men  were  then  set  to  work  on  a  line  of 
breastworks  which,  thanks  to  the  new  spades,  were  in 
good  shape  before  night.  The  Third  division  was  in 
position  on  the  left  of  the  Second,  with  the  First  beyond 
them,  and  the  Second  and  Fifth  corps  stretching  out  still 
farther  from  the  old  lines.  There  was  some  lively 
skirmishing,  and  sharp  fighting  even,  elsewhere  along 
the  line  before  night,  but  the  Second  division  rested 
undisturbed.  The  position  remained  unchanged  until 


1864.]       SHIFTING  SCENES  AND   VARYING  FORTUNES.      535 

noon  of  the  following  day.  It  had  rained  all  night,  and 
the  morning  was  cloudy  and  cold,  but  with  the  clearing 
weather  at  noon  the  return  movement  was  commenced, 
and  before  sunset  the  men  were  back  in  their  old  camps. 

This  was  the  movement  on  Hatcher's  Run,  and  was 
the  result  of  an  attempt  at  further  prolongation  of  the 
Union  line  on  the  left.  It  was  known  that  the  Confed 
erate  line  was  strongly  fortified  at  this  point,  but  General 
Grant  had  hoped  to  turn  the  defences  by  his  favorite  ma 
neuver  of  a  flank  movement.  The  works  were  found  to 
be  not  only  strongly  constructed,  and  protected  with  abatis 
and  slashed  timber,  but  the  vigilant  foe  at  once  entered 
on  a  counter-attack,  and  for  a  time  the  result  was  some 
what  doubtful.  A  few  flags  and  prisoners  were  taken 
on  both  sides  before  the  contest  finally  closed.  This 
movement  was  the  last  on  the  left  line  in  which  the  Ninth 
corps  participated. 

Back  in  camp  again,  the  men  employed  the  remaining 
days  of  October  in  rebuilding  their  quarters  for  winter 
weather,  for  the  cold  nights  and  frequent  rains  called  for 
blazing  fires  and  tight  roofs,  if  the  occupants  cared  any 
thing  for  comfort.  Inspection  and  muster  were  held  on 
the  3ist,  and  the  four  commissioned  officers  that  the 
regiment  could  then  boast  had  a  busy  day  of  it.  Sutlers 
were  now  flocking  into  camp,  and  it  began  to  look  as 
though  the  army  were  going  into  winter  quarters  in  good 
earnest. 

November  came  in  cold  and  rainy,  with  the  usual  rou 
tine  of  duty.  At  dress  parade  on  the  4th  an  order  from 
army  head-quarters  was  read,  calling  for  thorough  drill 
ing  and  also  target  practice  among  the  recruits.  There 
was  need  of  the  order,  too,  for  by  far  the  majority  of  the 
recruits  sent  out  to  the  army  during  the  year  1864  were 


536  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [November, 

practically  worthless  as  soldiers.  They  did  well  enough 
to  fill  quotas  at  home,  but  few  of  them  ever  filled  patriots' 
graves  at  the  front.  What  with  the  weather  and  all,  it  is 
not  strange  that  the  "vets"  were  getting  just  a  trifle  low 
in  spirits ;  and  it  really  was  hard  for  men  who  had  stood 
shoulder  to  shoulder  in  the  ranks  for  so  long,  who  had 
fought  and  starved  and  suffered  together,  to  be  classed 
in  with  these  lame  apologies  for  men  and  soldiers.  Nor 
was  it  easy  for  men  to  see  that  lying  in  a  mud- hole  a 
month  at  a  time  was  doing  anything  towards  subduing 
the  Rebellion,  and  a  little  kindly  assurance  from  the 
friends  at  home  that  they  were  doing  a  good  work,  and 
that  it  did  amount  to  something,  would  have  put  a  differ 
ent  aspect  on  affairs. 

The  5th  of  November  Colonel  Titus  returned,  and 
assumed  command  of  the  regiment.  The  following  day, 
which  was  Sunday,  there  was  a  thorough  inspection  of  the 
men  and  quarters,  but  both  were  in  better  shape  than 
could  reasonably  have  been  expected  in  view  of  the  vicis 
situdes  the  regiment  had  suffered  in  the  last  six  months. 
On  the  yth  a  course  of  drilling  and  instruction  was  entered 
upon  that  promised  rapid  improvement  in  the  matter  of 
detail  and  a  toning  up  of  regimental  discipline. 

Tuesday,  November  8,  was  the  day  of  the  presidential 
election,  and  the  Ninth  New  Hampshire  placed  itself  on 
record  at  the  polls  by  depositing  eighty-five  votes  for 
Abraham  Lincoln  to  eighteen  for  McClellan.  In  the 
afternoon,  at  battalion  drill,  the  new  double-shooting 
rifles  were  inspected  and  tested  by  the  division  inspector- 
general,  and  showed  off  their  demerits  to  good  advantage 
— flashed,  fizzled,  and  failed  famously  ;  enough  to  secure 
their  condemnation  and  a  speedy  exchange  to  the  Spring 
field  rifle. 


1864.]       SHIFTING  SCENES  AND   VARYING  FORTUNES.       537 

On  the  9th,  Capt.  O.  D.  Robinson  was  detailed  as  act 
ing  adjutant  of  the  regiment.  Major  Chandler,  who 
had  returned  to  the  front  early  in  September,  before  his 
wound,  received  at  Spottsylvania  in  June,  had  fully 
healed,  and  in  consequence  of  over-exertion  had  passed 
twro  weary  months  in  the  division  hospital  and  was  still 
unfit  for  active  duty,  was  ordered  back  to  Washington. 

By  the  I2th  it  was  certain  that  President  Lincoln  had 
been  triumphantly  re-elected,  and  the  good  news  was 
emphasized  by  an  order  making  the  day  a  general  holi 
day  throughout  the  camp.  Then  came  a  week  or  ten 
days  of  cold,  disagreeable  weather,  winding  up  with  a 
genuine  "north-easter,"  that  came  near  drowning  out 
the  camp.  The  presidential  proclamation  had  designat 
ed  the  24th  as  the  national  Thanksgiving  day,  but  no 
extra  supplies  could  be  procured  at  City  Point,  and  there 
was  only  the  usual  fare.  But  home  friends  had  remem 
bered  the  boys  in  blue,  and  the  morning  of  the  25th  there 
was  a  generous  supply  of  good  things  to  be  distributed, 
and  another  "off  duty"  day  allowed  the  boys  in  which 
to  enjoy  them.  There  was  a  turkey  and  a  fat  chicken 
for  every  five  men,  and  a  liberal  allowance  of  apples, 
crackers,  and  ginger-snaps.  And  did  n't  everything  taste 
good,  and  weren't  the  boys  jolly!  How  they  laughed 
and  cried,  told  stories  and  cracked  old  jokes  !  Oh,  it  did 
them  good,  soul  and  body,  to  know  that  they  were  not 
forgotten,  and  a  visit  in  the  afternoon  from  a  delegation 
of  ladies  and  gentlemen  from  the  old  Granite  state  added 
the  finishing  touch  to  a  memorable  day. 

On  the  2pth  the  corps  was  moved  to  the  vicinity  of  the 
Jerusalem  plank-road,  the  Ninth  New  Hampshire 
encamping  for  the  night  at  Fort  Alex  Hayes,  about  a 
mile  to  the  south  of  the  plank-road.  The  tide  of  fortune 


5  3 8  NINTH  NE IV  HAMPSHIRE.  [November,. 

had  evidently  taken  a  favorable  turn,  for  the  next  day 
brought  the  welcome  news  that  until  further  orders  the 
Ninth  New  Hampshire,  Thirty-second  Maine,  and 
Seventh  Maine  battery,  all  under  command  of  Colonel 
Titus,  were  to  act  as  the  garrison  of  Fort  Hayes.  This 
was  indeed  occasion  for  rejoicing,  for  it  was  one  of  the 
best  places  on  the  line,  and  only  needed  more  snugly 
built  quarters  to  make  it  a  most  comfortable  abiding- 
place  for  the  winter  months. 

The  garrison  was  required  to  furnish  pretty  heavy 
details  for  guard  and  picket  duty,  but  otherwise  than  this- 
but  little  was  required  of  them.  Directed  by  the  colonel, 
the  men  laid  out  the  camp  anew,  and  set  to  work  with  a 
will  at  their  house-building.  There  was  plenty  of  timber 
near  by,  and  teams  were  furnished  to  haul  the  logs,  so- 
the  work  progressed  rapidly  ;  and  with  such  good  pur 
pose  did  the  men  apply  themselves  to  the  task  that  by  the 
middle  of  the  month  the  regiment  was  the  proud  possess 
or  of  one  of  the  best  sets  of  quarters  in  the  army,  and 
was  reported  as  being  excelled  by  only  one  other  at  the 
time  of  the  official  inspection. 

The  men  were  divided  into  squads  of  four,  each  squad 
having  a  house  by  itself.  These  were  eleven  feet  long 
by  seven  wide,  the  log  walls  five  feet  high,  the  roof  eight 
feet  from  the  ground  in  the  centre  and  covered  with  four 
pieces  of  shelter  tent,  two  to  a  side.  The  inside  was 
fitted  up  with  a  row  of  bunks  on  one  side  and  a  fire-place 
on  the  other,  with  stools  and  tables  according  to  the  fan 
cies  of  the  owners.  These  were  the  first  real  quarters 
the  regiment  had  ever  occupied,  and  though  some  ot 
them  had  grumbled  not  a  little  because  the  colonel  would: 
have  every  detail  "just  so  particular,"  they  were  proud 
enough  when  everything  was  at  last  pronounced  satisfac- 


1864.]      SHIFTING  SCENES  AND   VARYING  FORTUNES.       539 

tory ;  and  when  the  wind  and  sleet  reigned  without, 
lounged  around  in  their  snug  quarters  and  congratulated 
themselves  on  the  good  fortune  that  had  wafted  them  to 
this  pleasant  haven. 


CHAPTER  XVI. 
THE  DOWNFALL  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY. 

The  Army  of  the  Potomac,  resting  in  comparative 
quiet  through  the  winter  months  of  i864~'65,  was  yet,  in 
its  investure  of  the  strongholds  of  the  Confederacy,  an 
important  factor  in  the  brilliant  strategic  plan  of  the  Union 
commander-in-chief.  The  policy  which  dictated  offen 
sive  activity  in  almost  every  other  quarter,  was  equally 
purposeful  in  the  apparent  inaction  that  prevailed  in  Vir 
ginia.  To  prevent  Lee  from  withdrawing  his  army  from 
Virginia,  and  hurling  his  concentrated  strength  on  Sher 
man,  as  he  marked  by  successive  victories  his  triumphant 
progress  "  from  Atlanta  to  the  sea,"  was  General  Grant's 
prime  object;  and  with  the  buttress  of  the  Confederate 
forces  hemmed  in  by  the  Union  lines,  he  felt  that  there 
was  little  to  apprehend  in  this  direction. 

The  advance  on  Sherman  would  have  been  a  desper 
ate  throw,  yet  the  Confederacy  was  playing  for  big 
stakes  and  could  afford  to  take  the  risk  ;  but  the  mere 
suggestion  of  a  move  involving  the  abandonment  of  the 
Confederate  capital,  drew  forth  a  storm  of  protest  from 
the  Richmond  journals,  by  whom  such  a  course  was  pro 
nounced  as  synonomous  with  surrender  at  discretion. 

"  He  either  fears  his  fate  too  much, 

Or  his  deserts  are  small, 
Who  fails  to  put  it  to  the  touch 
And  win,  or  lose,  it  all." 


1865.]  THE  DOWNFALL  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.  541 

In  lieu  of  a  bold  stroke,  an  expedient  was  resorted  to 
whose  utter  humiliation  was  in  itself  a  palpable  admission 
of  weakness  and  the  omen  of  approaching  doom.  The 
arming  of  the  blacks  on  the  Union  side  had  been  merci- 

o 

lessly  condemned  in  the  South,  and  the  idea  that  they 
could  be  transformed  into  effective  soldiers  ridiculed  ;  but 
the  wasted  ranks  of  the  Southern  army  could  be  filled  in 
no  other  way,  and  such  slaves  as  could  bear  arms  were 
freed,  and  given  a  musket  with  which  to  contend  against 
the  would-be  liberators  of  the  whole  race. 

So  the  winter  wore  slowly  away,  and  with  the  opening 
of  spring  it  seemed  evident  on  all  sides  that  the  final, 
decisive  struggle  of  the  war  was  approaching.  Up  to 
the  latter  part  .of  March  the  Ninth  corps  occupied  the 
intrenchments  on  the  right,  their  line  extending  from  the 
Appomattox  to  Fort  Howard.  At  the  point  where  the 
line  crossed  the  Prince  George  Court-house  road  was 
Fort  Steadman,  a  square  redoubt  carrying  nine  guns  and 
distant  about  five  hundred  feet  from  the  enemy's  line. 
Towards  this  point,  which  was  one  of  the  captured  works, 
the  Confederate  commander  made  his  last  offensive 
movement  on  the  morning  of  the  25th  of  March,  1865, 
with  the  idea  of  breaking  through  the  lines  and  destroy 
ing  the  supplies  at  City  Point. 

Just  before  daylight  the  fort  wras  surprised  by  a  squad 
of  pretended  deserters,  who  overpowered  the  pickets  and 
opened  the  way  for  a  strong  force  of  picked  men,  closely 
supported  by  three  heavy  columns  of  the  enemy,  from 
Gordon's  and  Bushrod  Johnson's  divisions.  The  fort 
was  held  by  the  Fourteenth  New  York  heavy  artillery, 
who  were  completely  overwhelmed  and  most  of  them 
captured.  The  guns  were  turned  on  the  adjacent  works 
by  the  triumphant  foe,  who  succeeded  in  driving  the 


542  NINTH  NE  W  HAMPSHIRE.  [March, 

soldiers  from  three  of  the  batteries.  But  the  tables  were 
quickly  turned.  General  Parke,  in  temporary  command 
of  the  Ninth  corps,  ordered  Hartranft's  and  Willcox's 
divisions  to  the  rear  of  the  fort,  from  whence  they  were 
hurled  upon  the  enemy  with  the  precision  and  effective 
ness  of  a  thunderbolt.  Eighteen  hundred  prisoners  were 
taken,  and  the  re-captured  guns  were  quickly  wheeled 
upon  the  discomfited  and  fleeing  forces,  so  recently 
flushed  with  success. 

Orders  for  the  grand  movement  which  was  to  give  the 
finishing  blow  to  the  Rebellion  had  already  been  issued 
by  General  Grant.  The  forty  miles  of  Union  front 
stretched  from  the  north  bank  of  the  James  to  Hatcher's 
Run ;  fifteen  miles  to  the  south  from  Petersburg  was 
Dinwiddie  Court-house,  and  four  miles  to  the  north-west 
of  this  was  Five  Forks,  which,  though  so  far  from  the 
-city,  was  from  its  peculiar  situation  in  reality  the  key  to 
the  stronghold.  Six  miles  to  the  north  from  Five  Forks 
was  the  South  Side  railroad,  where  Lee  had  established 
a  strong  line  of  works.  With  this  point  carried  there 
was  unobstructed  passage  to  the  Danville  railroad,  and 
Petersburg  and  Richmond  at  the  mercy  of  the  victor. 

At  length  the  strong,  silent  man  gathered  his  forces 
for  the  final  blow.  No  meaningless  Salmonean  thunders 

O 

now  of  empty  chariots  or  brazen  bridges,  but  the  veri 
table  thunderbolts  of  war,  hurled  by  the  arm  of  Ulysses. 
On  the  28th  of  March,  Sheridan  with  two  divisions  of 
cavalry  set  out  for  Dinwiddie  Court-house,  which  was 
reached  late  in  the  afternoon  of  the  following  day  ;  in  the 
mean  time  Warren  with  the  Fifth  corps  had  crossed 
Hatcher's  Run  and  was  making  for  the  same  point.  The 
movement  was  discovered  by  the  vigilant  commander  of 
the  Confederate  forces,  and  on  the  morning  of  the  3Oth 


J865-]  THE  DOWNFALL  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.  543 

Sheridan  had  advanced  only  a  mile  beyond  the  court 
house  when  the  enemy  was  encountered.  After  a  care 
ful  reconnoissance  Sheridan  attacked  in  the  early  after 
noon.  The  fight  was  a  hot  one,  and  Sheridan,  unable 
to  employ  his  cavalry  to  advantage,  owing  to  the  marshy 
nature  of  the  ground,  dismounted  his  men,  and  slowly, 
contesting  the  ground  as  he  withdrew,  fell  back  to  the 
court-house,  where  the  contest  ended  in  the  early  evening. 

The  morning  of  the  ist  of  April  saw  the  enemy  strongly 
intrenched  at  Five  Forks.  During  the  forenoon  Sheri 
dan,  with  his  cavalry  supported  by  the  Fifth  corps, 
which  had  come  up  in  the  mean  time,  slowly  and  cau 
tiously  advanced  once  more  towards  the  coveted  position. 
A  single  sentence  in  Sheridan's  official  report  gives  the 
gist  of  the  story. 

"The  enemy,"  writes  Sheridan,  "were  driven  from 
their  strong  line  of  works,  completely  routed  ;  the  Fifth 
corps  doubling  up  their  left  flank  in  confusion,  and  the 
cavalry  of  General  Merritt,  dashing  on  to  White  Oak 
road,  capturing  their  artillery,  turning  it  upon  them,  and 
riding  into  their  broken  ranks,  so  demoralized  them  that 
they  made  no  serious  stand  after  their  line  was  carried, 
but  took  flight  in  disorder." 

The  way  was  open  to  the  South  Side  railroad.  "At 
tack  along  the  whole  line,"  was  the  imperative  message 
issued  from  General  Grant's  head-quarters  to  his  corps 
commanders,  and  at  ten  o'clock  that  Saturday  evening 
the  big  guns  in  position  before  Petersburg  opened  from 
right  to  left,  the  distant  hills  echoing  and  re-echoing  all 
night  long  the  signal  victory  that  their  thunderous  boom 
ing  proclaimed. 

Lee  and  his  veterans,  the  last  hope  of  a  lost  cause, 
still  held  the  city,  but  the  Confederate  commander  felt 


544  NINTH  NE  W  HA  MPSHIRE.  [  A  pr i  1  f 

that  its  doom  was  sealed.  In  the  assault  ordered  by 
General  Grant  at  daybreak  on  the  2d  of  April,  blow 
after  blow,  to  the  right  and  to  the  left,  was  dealt  the 
steadily  weakening  defences.  With  his  heavy  losses, — 
by  this  time  exceeding  10,000  men — with  his  right  wing 
utterly  demolished,  and  imminent  capture  or  destruction 
staring  his  handful  of  veterans  in  the  face,  is  it  any 
wonder  that  at  half-past  ten  o'clock  on  that  beautiful 
Sabbath  morning  he  sent  to  Jefferson  Davis,  president  of 
the  Confederacy,  the  last  official  despatch  he  was  des 
tined  to  receive. 

The  message  found  him  at  church  in  the  city  of  Rich 
mond.  Its  brief  purport — "  My  lines  are  broken  in  three 
places.  Richmond  must  be  evacuated  this  evening.'* — 
was  warning  enough,  and  within  half  an  hour  Davis  had 
left  the  city  behind  him.  No  words  had  been  uttered  as 
he  withdrew  from  the  church,  but  none  were  needed. 
Pollard,  the  eminent  Southern  historian,  has  depicted,  as 
no  one  else  can,  the  scenes  of  that  last  afternoon  and 
night  of  Confederate  rule  in  Richmond,  in  the  following 
brief  extract : 

\ 

"The  rumor  was  caught  up  in  the  streets  that  Rich 
mond  was  to  be  evacuated,  and  was  soon  carried  to  the 
ends  of  the  city.  Men,  women,  and  children  rushed 
from  the  churches,  passing  from  lip  to  lip  news  of  the 
impending  fall  of  Richmond.  And  yet,  it  was  difficult 
to  believe  it.  To  look  up  to  the  calm,  beautiful  sky  of 
that  spring  day,  unassailed  by  one  single  noise  of  battle, 
to  watch  the  streets,  unvexed  by  artillery  or  troops, 
stretching  away  into  the  quiet,  hazy  atmosphere,  and 
believe  that  the  capital  of  the  Confederacy,  so  peaceful, 
so  apparently  secure,  was  in  a  few  hours  to  be  the  prey 


1865.]  THE  DOWNFALL  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.  545 

of  the  enemy,  and  to  be  wrapped  in  the  infernal  horrors 
of  a  conflagration  ! 

"It  was  late  in  the  afternoon  when  the  signs  of  evacu 
ation  became  apparent  to  the  incredulous.  Wagons  on 
the  streets  were  being  hastily  loaded  at  the  departments 
with  boxes,  trunks,  etc.,  and  driven  to  the  Danville 
depot.  Those  who  had  determined  to  evacuate  with  the 
fugitive  government  looked  on  with  amazement;  then, 
convinced  of  the  fact,  rushed  to  follow  the  government's 
example.  Vehicles  suddenly  rose  to  a  premium  value 
that  was  astounding;  and  ten,  fifteen,  and  even  a  hun 
dred  dollars,  in  gold  or  Federal  currency,  was  offered 
for  a  conveyance.  Suddenly,  as  if  by  magic,  the  streets 
became  filled  with  men,  walking  as  though  for  a  wager, 
and  behind  them  excited  negroes  with  trunks,  bundles, 
and  luggage  of  every  description.  All  over  the  city  it 
was  the  same — wagons,  trunks,  bandboxes,  and  their 
owners,  a  mass  of  hurrying  fugitives,  filling  the  streets. 
The  banks  were  all  open,  and  depositors  were  as  busy  as 
bees  removing  their  specie  deposits ;  and  the  directors 
were  equally  active  in  getting  off  their  bullion.  Hun 
dreds  of  thousands  of  dollars  of  paper  money  was 
destroyed,  both  state  and  Confederate.  Night  came; 
and  with  it  came  confusion  worse  confounded.  There 
was  no  sleep  for  human  eyes  in  Richmond  that  night." 

The  fall  of  Richmond  was  the  death-blow  of  the 
Rebellion,  and  was  rejoiced  over  accordingly.  Before 
noon  of  the  3d  of  April  the  joyful  news  had  been  flashed 
over  the  loyal  states,  and  the  whole  North  gave  itself  up 
to  a  general  jubilation.  Everywhere  business  was  sus 
pended,  and  crowds  gathered  to  listen  to  the  reading  of 
the  despatches  amid  the  chiming  of  bells  and  cheers  and 


546  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [April, 

huzzas  from  thousands  of  loyal  hearts.  Hopes,  long 
deferred,  had  at  last  been  realized,  and  it  was  once  more 
4 'The  Union  forever!" 

The  evacuation  of  Petersburg  was  of  course  simultane 
ous  with  that  of  Richmond,  but  it  was  accomplished  so 
quietly  that  not  even  the  watchful  Union  pickets,  scarce 
a  stone's  throw  away,  knew  that  the  enemy  was  retreat 
ing  until  the  dawning  light  revealed  the  empty  outposts. 
The  skirmishers  advanced,  but  were  unassailed.  The 
troops  were  at  once  put  in  motion,  and  Colonel  Ely's 
brigade  of  the  Ninth  corps  was  the  first  to  pass  the 
enemy's  works.  At  half-past  four  the  Stars  and  Stripes 
were  floating  over  the  court-house  :  the  long  besieged, 
ably  defended  city  was  at  last  in  Union  hands. 

The  Confederate  army  had  fled,  but  they  could  not 
escape  from  the  meshes  of  the  encircling  net  so  skilfully 
stretched  by  the  Union  commander-in-chief.  The  Con 
federacy  was  dying  hard,  but  it  was  useless  to  contend 
against  fate.  The  lines  were  drawn  even  tighter  around 
the  devoted  troops — faint  with  hunger  and  exhaustion, 
yet  faithful  to  the  last — that  still  followed  the  broken  for 
tunes  of  the  Confederate  leader;  until  the  final  capitula 
tion  at  Appomattox  Court-house,  on  the  pth  day  of  April, 
1865. 

The  last  act  in  the  great  tragedy  came  all  too  soon.  On 
the  I4th  of  April,  President  Lincoln  was  stricken  down 
by  the  assassin's  bullet,  while  the  prayers  and  blessings 
of  the  race  he  had  freed  were  yet  ringing  in  his  ears. 
The  first  wave  of  enthusiasm  and  gladness  over  the 
collapse  of  the  Rebellion  had  scarcely  subsided  when 
the  country  was  called  to  mourn  the  death  of  the  no 
ble,  martyred  president,  and  the  bells  so  recently  at 
tuned  to  paeans  of  joy  were  tolled  in  sad  requiem.  Alas 


CORP.  CYRUS  B.  NORRIS,  Co.  E. 


1865.]  THE  DOWNFALL  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.  547 

that  it  should  so  be  ;  that  so  brief  a  moment  of  triumph 
should  be  vouchsafed  after  long  years  of  disaster  and 
defeat ! 


THE    NINTH    NEW    HAMPSHIRE'S    LAST    DAYS    IN    THE 
UNITED    STATES     SERVICE. 

Comfortably  quartered  as  the  garrison  of  Fort  Hayes, 
the  regiment  passed  the  first  three  months  of  the  year 
1865  in  a  pleasant  round  of  daily  duties.  The  quiet  that 
prevailed  throughout  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  was  not 
productive  of  incident,  and  the  days  slipped  by  in  almost 
unbroken  sameness.  The  regiment  was  reorganized  in 
the  early  part  of  the  year, — a  rather  necessary  procedure 
in  view  of  the  heavy  losses  sustained  within  the  preced 
ing  six  months,  and  resulting  in  several  well  earned  pro 
motions.  Among  others  were  those  of  Lieutenants  Babb 
and  Allen  to  be  captains;  Second  Lieutenant  Robinson, 
who  had  also  served  as  acting  adjutant,  to  be  first  lieu 
tenant,  and  later  on  to  be  captain,  together  with  Lieutenant 
Quimby  ;  Sergeants  Burnham,  Simons,  Kelly,  and  Hall 
as  first  lieutenants  ;  Sergeant  Button  as  sergeant-major ; 
Corporals  Norris,  Richardson,  Stearns,  and  Runnals  as 
sergeants. 

Under  date  of  January  27  is  a  letter  from  Colonel 
Titus  to  Major  Chandler,  who  was  still  in  Washington, 
detailing  several  interesting  facts  : 

"  Two  days  ago  I  had  just  seated  myself  very  comfort 
ably  to  write  you,  feet  duly  elevated  and  pen  in  hand, 
when  I  momentarily  paused  to  listen  to  a  number  of 
strange  voices  outside  ;  then  a  rap,  and  in  obedience  to 
the  usual  summons,  '  Come  in  ! '  the  door  opened,  and 
there  appeared  a  crowd  of  citizens,  several  at  least,  if  in 


548  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [January, 

military  order,  patterned  after  the  Thirty-second  Maine 
(now,  alas  !  defunct),  all  hailing  from  New  Hampshire. 
So  of  course  the  day  was  devoted  to  them.  Went  to  the 
three  New  Hampshire  regiments,  also  along  the  lines,  to 
Forts  Hell,  Morton,  etc.  Nashua  was  represented  by 
Oilman  Scripture  of  the  Indian  Head  House,  also  a  Mr. 
Parkers,  merchant  tailor  I  believe  ;  B.  P.  Cheney,  rail 
road  commissioner,  and  Dr.  Tubbs  of  Peterborough.  A 
Mr.  Spalding,  Mr.  Morrison,  also  the  sutler  of  the  Thir 
teenth  New  Hampshire,  and  somebody  else.  All  of 
course  were  highly  edified,  and  left  at  night  for  City 
Point.  I  am  surprised  that  more  men  do  not  visit  the 
army, — from  mere  curiosity,  if  nothing  more.  A  man 
must  see  for  himself  to  have  any  definite  or  correct 
knowledge  of  an  army  and  its  operations. 

11 1  am,  as  you  see,  still  at  Brigade  [head-quarters], 
General  Griffin's  leave  expiring  on  the  3ist  inst.  Gen 
eral  Meade  is  absent  again,  and  General  Parke  com 
manding  the  army  and  General  Willcox  the  corps.  Heard 
yesterday  that  General  Willcox  had  obtained  leave,  so  that 
General  Potter  would  command  the  corps.  In  that  case  I 
shall  be  in  command  of  the  division  till  General  Griffin's 
return.  Believe  I  am  now  senior  colonel  in  the  corps,  ex 
cept  Colonel  Bliss.  Colonel  Bliss,  by  the  way ,  is  still  some 
where  inWesternVirginia — inspecting  hospitals,  I  believe. 

"  Presume  you  have  heard  by  the  papers  all  about  the 
wonderful  exploits  of  the  rebel  gunboats,  and  what  they 
did  n't  do.  What  makes  the  affair  the  more  wonderful, 
is  the  fact  that  the  deserters  for  some  days  previous  had 
reported  that  they  were  coming  down.  And  then,  when 
they  did  come,  they  lay  aground  for  so  long,  apparently 
at  our  mercy,  when  our  sharpshooters  on  the  bank  pre 
vented  them  from  opening  a  port-hole  or  firing  a  gun. 


GEN.  J.  G.  PARKE. 


1865.]  THE  DOWNFALL  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.  549 

Believe  General  Grant  attributes  our  escape  and  safety 
to  a  special  interposition  of  Providence,  and  from  what  I 
can  learn  of  the  affair  I  think  we  may  well  believe  the 
Lord  on  our  side  this  time  at  least.  Think  the  boats 
must  have  come  down  to  bring  General  Ferrero's  com 
mission  as  major-general. 

"  There  are  rumors  to  the  effect  that  the-rebs  are  about 
to  evacuate  Richmond.  Of  its  truth  I  of  course  know 
nothing.  It  seems  General  Butler  is  bound  to  be  a  hero 
in  any  event.  .  .  .  '  Tis  hinted  that  General  Meade  may 
possibly  not  return  to  this  army,  and  if  true  I  think  few 
beyond  his  immediate  staff  will  have  any  regrets.  .  .  . 
Picket  and  guard  duty,  with  a  little  drilling,  are  the  order 
of  the  day — and  the  night  too. 

"  The  New  Hampshire  regiments  here  try  to  make 
themselves  believe  they  are  going  home  to  vote  at  the 
March  election.  I  certainly  should  have  no  objection, 
though  perhaps  General  Grant  may.  Presume  he  will 
not  be  likely  to  consider  the  New  Hampshire  state  elec 
tion  of  as  much  consequence  as  some  people  more 
immediately  interested.  .  .  .  Captain  Hutchinson  is  now 
away  on  leave.  Captain  Copp  I  suppose  returned  to 
night.  Suppose  you  are  aware  he  committed  matrimony 
during  his  absence.  .  .  . 

"  '  Tis  acknowledged  by  all,  I  believe,  that  we  have 
the  best  quarters  of  any  regiment  in  the  corps,  and  cer 
tainly  the  best  I  have  seen  in  the  army.  This  was  the 
result  of  supervision  while  building.  You  ought  at  least 
to  come  down  and  take  a  look  at  my  own  house.  .  .  . 

"  Well,  Major,  it  seems  this  war  must  be  nearly  ended. 
Do  n't  know  what  the  enemy  may  do  in  their  desperation, 
but  it  really  seems  the  fighting  is  nearly  over.  *  The 
wish  is  father  to  the  thought,'  perhaps." 


550  NINTH  NE  W  HA MPSHIRE.  [ March, 

Colonel  Titus's  mention  of  visitors  from  New  Hamp 
shire  recalls  a  story  told  by  Quartermaster  Moses.  One 
evening  a  jolly  company  had  gathered  at  head-quarters, 
in  honor  of  several  guests  from  the  Granite  state  who 
were  spending  a  few  days  in  camp.  Everybody  was  in 
good  spirits,  and  it  was  in  the  "  wee,  sma'  hours  "  that 
the  candles  were  at  last  extinguished.  Just  as  the  guests 
were  beginning  to  get  accustomed  to  the  novelty  of  their 
surroundings,  there  came  a  summons  at  the  door.  It  was 
an  orderly  from  General  Griffin.  "Colonel,"  said  he, 
"  the  general's  orders  are  to  get  your  regiment  ready  to 
fall  in,  for  'tis  thought  the  Johnnies  are  getting  ready  to 
attack."  It  seemed  but  an  instant  before  the  camp  was 
astir,  and  in  the  hurry  of  the  moment  the  visitors  were 
forgotten.  The  colonel  was  busily  engaged  when  one 
of  them  touched  him  on  the  arm.  "  Colonel,  where  shall 
we  go?"  he  asked.  "  If  the  Johnnies  come  on  us  you  '11 

go  to  h 1 !"  was  the  comforting  reply,  as  the  colonel 

turned  once  more  to  his  work.  It  happened  that  it  was 
a  false  alarm,  and  presently  the  camp  was  quiet  again, 
but  the  guests  could  not  be  persuaded  to  prolong  their 
stay  beyond  a  hurried  breakfast  the  next  morning. 

As  for  Captain  Copp,  he  had  duly  acknowledged  his 
commitment  to  Major  Chandler,  as  the  following  letter, 
written  from  Lancaster,  Mass.,  shows: 

"  Your  advice  in  regard  to  spending  too  much  time  at 
Lancaster,  came  too  late,  for  I  was  '  done  gone '  when  your 
letter  arrived,  and  my  -wife  insists  upon  my  remaining 
here  as  long  as  possible.  The  marriage  ceremony  took 
place  at  the  church,  January  17,  1865,  at  2  1-2  p.  m.  ; 
reception  at  the  house,  from  3  to  4.  No  doubt  you  are 
surprised  to  learn  of  such  a  movement,  but  no  more  so 


1865.]  THE  DOWNFALL  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.  551 

than  I  am,  for  it  was  not  my  intention  when  I  left  the 
army  to  take  part  in  any  such  performance.  .  .  .  My 
health  is  better  than  when  I  left  the  regiment,  although 
the  surgeon  here  thinks  army  life  a  little  too  rough  for 
me.  I  should  be  very  happy  to  visit  you  in  Philadelphia 
on  my  return,  but  do  not  think  it  will  be  convenient,  as  I 
am  now  over  my  time.  I  have  a  surgeon's  certificate, 
however,  which  will  make  it  all  right." 

March  14  the  election  for  members  of  congress  from 
the  state  of  New  Hampshire  was  held  at  head-quarters. 
Everybody  was  busily  engaged, — some  at  the  polls, 
others  preparing  the  noonday  mess,  when  an  alarm  was 
started  that  the  enemy  was  advancing  in  line  of  battle. 
There  was  one  grand,  simultaneous  rush  from  the  cook 
house  and  ballot-box  to  the  bayonet,  and  in  less  than  five 
minutes  every  man  was  armed  and  equipped  and  in  line 
for  the  warm  reception  of  the  invader.  After  waiting  for 
a  full  hour,  it  became  manifest  that  his  visit  had  been 
unavoidably  postponed,  and  the  voting  and  cooking  were 
once  more  taken  in  hand.  Whether  the  dinner  was 
spoiled  by  the  delay  is  not  recorded,  but  the  regiment  is 
credited  with  a  total  of  eighty-seven  votes. 

During  the  night  orders  were  received  for  the  sutlers 
to  pack  up  their  goods  and  remove  them  to  City  Point. 
No  direct  move  of  the  corps  was  ordered,  but  rumors  and 
speculations  were  rife  through  the  day,  and  there  was 
every  indication  that  a  great  movement  was  being  in 
augurated,  and  awaiting  only  a  suitable  condition  of  the 
roads  to  be  vigorously  prosecuted.  For  a  day  or  two 
nothing  else  was  talked  of,  and  then  the  excitement 
gradually  subsided.  The  Sixth  corps  was  under  march 
ing  orders,  but  the  Ninth  was  to  remain  to  hold  the  line 


552  NINTH  NE  W  HAMPSHIRE.  [April, 

from  the  Appomattox  to  Fort  Davis,  and  thence  south  to 
protect  the  military  depot  at  City  Point. 

The  days  slipped  by  until  the  28th  of  March,  when 
orders  were  received  to  have  everything  in  readiness  to 
move  at  five  o'clock  the  following  morning.  How  the 
regiment  was  to  leave  its  present  quarters  unless  relieved, 
no  man  could  tell ;  but  "  orders  is  orders,"  and  were 
obeyed  accordingly.  Everybody  was  routed  out  at  four 
in  the  morning,  but  there  was  no  further  movement  dur 
ing  the  day.  A  little  past  ten  in  the  evening  the  enemy 
opened  on  the  right  of  the  line  with  a  terrific  bombard 
ment,  accompanied  with  a  heavy  volley  of  musketry. 
The  alarm  was  instantly  given,  the  long  roll  was  beaten, 
and  the  sentinels  discharged  their  muskets.  Most  of  the 
officers  and  men  were  in  bed,  but  in  an  instant  every  one 
sprang  to  his  feet,  buckled  on  his  equipments,  and  the 
regiment  was  formed  in  line  of  battle  inside  of  five 
minutes. 

The  bombardment  continued  for  more  than  an  hour, 
and  was  very  rapid,  shell  after  shell  from  the  mortars 
wheeling  through  the  thick  darkness  with  terrible  swift 
ness,  and  spreading  their  death-dealing  fragments  broad 
cast.  It  was  learned  next  day  that  Major  Brown  of  the 
Eighteenth  New  Hampshire  had  been  killed  during  the 
bombardment.  Major  Brown  was  formerly  adjutant  of 
the  Ninth,  and  was  a  brave,  patriotic,  noble-souled  man, 
beloved  and  respected  by  all  who  knew  him. 

In  the  great  battle  of  April  2,  which  sealed  the  fate  of 
the  Confederacy,  the  regiment  took  no  very  active  part, 
remaining  that  day  as  a  garrison  to  hold  the  fort  in  case 
of  an  assault  from  the  enemy.  During  the  night  of  the 
2d  they  were  taken  from  the  fort  and  placed  in  the  column 
which  was  to  renew  the  assault  the  next  morning.  The 


1865.]  THE  DOWN-FALL  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.  553 

dawning  light  revealed  the  fact  that  the  enemy  was 
evacuating.  It  was  five  o'clock  in  the  morning  of  April 
3  when  the  line  cautiously  advanced,  but  as  they  neared 
the  fortifications  no  belching  cannon  or  rattling  musketry 
opposed  them,  and  they  hurried  forward — over  forts 
filled  with  abandoned  artillery,  where  the  officers'  tents 
were  still  standing — and  presently  halted  on  Cemetery 
hill,  which  commanded  a  full  view  of  the  long  besieged 
citadel. 

It  was  a  glorious  moment  for  those  war-worn  veterans. 
Behind  them  lay  the  strong,  and  hitherto  impregnable, 
works  of  the  enemy,  the  unbroken  line  which  they  had 
confronted  for  so  many  weary  months ;  and  beyond, 
their  own  fortifications  and  camps,  and  the  burying- 
grounds  of  the  various  divisions,  where  so  many  of  their 
gallant  comrades  were  lying,  victims  of  disease  or 
bullets  while  bravely  contending  for  what  their  com 
rades-in-arms  had  been  spared  to  behold.  Before  them 
was  the  now  quiet  city  of  Petersburg,  beautiful  to  behold 
with  its  fresh  green  grass-plots  and  its  thousands  of  fruit 
trees  in  full  blossom. 

The  morning  was  clear  and  calm,  and  the  first  beams 
of  the  rising  sun  were  just  gilding  the  spires  and  steeples 
of  the  churches,  flashing  in  brilliancy  from  the  thousands 
of  burnished  muskets  in  the  hands  of  the  soldiers  ranged 
along  the  heights,  and  lighting  up  the  folds  of  "  Old 
Glory  "  as  it  proudly  floated  from  the  lofty  cupola  of  the 
court-house,  while  line  after  line  of  living  blue,  with 
tattered  banners  streaming  in  the  morning  breeze,  swept 
up  the  long  slopes,  cheering  until  the  very  heavens  gave 
back  the  sound. 

Never  will  that  scene  be  forgotten  by  those  who  beheld 
it.  As  the  troops  entered  the  city  the  white  inhabitants 


554  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [April, 

for  the  most  part  treated  them  coldly,  appearing  sullen 
and  indignant,  even  while  their  haggard  and  careworn 
faces  revealed  the  intensity  of  the  strain  to  which  they 
had  been  subjected.  But  the  negroes  seemed  wild  with 
delight.  They  waved  their  hats,  bonnets,  and  aprons ; 
shouted,  sang,  laughed,  danced,  and  prayed  promiscu 
ously,  and  fairly  exhausted  their  "  Anglo- African  "  vocab 
ulary  in  heaping  praises  upon  the  Yankees.  All  classes 
had  been  reduced  to  great  straits,  and  even  the  little 
children,  both  black  and  white,  devoured  the  dry,  hard 
bread  which  the  soldiers  showered  upon  them  as  if  it  had 
been  sweetmeats. 

Returning  to  camp,  the  regiment  prepared  to  leave  its 
comfortable  quarters.  The  corps  moved  about  noon, 
following  the  South  Side  railroad  in  pursuit  of  the  re 
treating  Confederate  forces.  From  the  6th  to  the  8th  of 
April  they  were  encamped  at  Nottoway  Court-house,  and 
on  the  latter  date  the  Ninth  New  Hampshire,  with  two 
other  regiments,  was  detailed  to  guard  Ewell  and  his 
army  (they  having  been  captured  two  days  previous) 
back  towards  Petersburg.  The  army  numbered  about 
eight  thousand  men,  and  included  six  generals,  and  to 
care  for  such'  a  body  of  prisoners  was  anything  but  agree 
able  duty,  for  the  weather  was  very  unpleasant  and  the 
roads  muddy  from  the  recent  heavy  rains.  The  prisoners, 
so  weak,  weary,  and  footsore  that  sometimes  the  column 
would  be  strung  out  nearly  two  miles,  filled  the  centre  ol 
the  road,  and  the  guards  marched  on  either  side  with 
fixed  bayonets.  On  the  route  several  of  the  prisoners 
passed  their  own  fathers'  doors.  At  night  they  were 
turned  into  a  large  field,  and  the  guard  was  ranged  around 
the  outside.  Only  light  rations  could  be  furnished  the 
hungry  soldiers  the  first  day,  but  that  night  twenty  beef 


1865.]  THE  DOWNFALL  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.  555 

cattle  were  killed  and  cooked,  enough  to  provide  a 
plentiful  supply. 

Wilson's  station  was  reached  on  the  loth,  and  here 
full  rations  were  served.  Some  of  the  prisoners  had  for 
merly  served  on  the  Union  side,  and  they  acknowledged 
that  these  were  the  first  full  army  rations  they  had  re 
ceived  since  they  entered  the  Confederate  service. 
While  here  the  joyful  tidings  of  Lee's  capitulation  were 
received,  but  there  was  little  public  demonstration  over 
the  news,  out  of  consideration  for  their  hapless  captives. 

On  the  nth  the  regiment  was  relieved,  and  after  a 
tedious  march  through  the  rain  and  mud,  rejoined  the 
brigade  on  the  I3th,  near  Burkesville  Junction.  Here 
they  remained  on  duty  of  various  kinds  until  the  2Oth, 
when  the  last  march  through  Virginia  was  begun.  On 
Sunday,  April  23,  the  Ninth  corps  marched  through 
Petersburg  between  six  and  seven  in  the  morning,  en 
route  for  City  Point,  which  was  reached  about  noon. 

On  the  26th  embarkation  for  Alexandria  began,  the 
Ninth  arriving  there  late  in  the  following  evening  and 
going  at  once  into  camp.  Military  duty  had  now  lost  its 
charm,  for  the  men  felt  that  the  great  object  of  all  their 
toil  and  suffering  had  been  accomplished,  and  awaited 
with  impatience  the  order  for  muster-out,  though  drills 
and  reviews  were  still  kept  up,  simply  as  a  precaution 
ary  measure. 

Many  a  gray-haired  veteran  of  to-day  will  recall  with 
a  smile  the  circumstances  surrounding  the  following 
incident,  so  faithfully  and  skilfully  pictured  by  an  inter 
ested  comrade  : 

"The  only  occasion  within  my  knowledge  when  the 
late  Major  Chandler  lapsed  into  profanity  was  at  the 


556  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [May, 

close  of  the  war,  while  we  were  encamped  near  Alex 
andria,  Va.,  just  before  the  'grand  review'  in  Washing 
ton  ;  and  then  the  circumstances  were  so  exceptional 
that,  as  in  the  case  of  Uncle  Toby,  it  is  hoped  the  re 
cording  angel  dropped  a  tear  upon  the  oath  and  '  blotted 
it  out  forever.' 

"  Many  comrades  will  recall  the  foolhardy  act  of 
some  harebrained  member  of  another  regiment  in  our 
brigade,  who,  having  somewhere  found  an  unexploded 
shell,  brought  it  into  camp,  buried  it  in  the  ground  (leav 
ing  the  fuse  exposed),  and  then,  in  reckless  disregard  of 
consequences,  touched  off  a  train  of  powder  leading  to 
the  bomb.  Several  men  were  seriously  wounded  by 
fragments  of  the  shell,  and  of  course  everybody  that  was 
unhurt  rushed  towards  the  spot  to  ascertain  the  cause  of 
the  explosion. 

"On  the  way  I  met  Major  Chandler,  walking  with 
Paymaster  W.  H.  H.  Allen,  afterwards  Judge  Allen  of 
the  New  Hampshire  supreme  court,  and  asked  what  had 

happened.  4  Why,'  answered  Chandler,  'a  fool,  a 

fool,  a fool,  has  exploded  a  shell  right  on  our 

color  line  !'  l  That  is  a  fool  in  the  superlative  degree,' 
said  Allen,  with  the  grave  smile  characteristic  of  the 
man  ;  but  our  major  seemed  to  prefer  his  own  vigorous 
expletives  to  the  equivalent  euphemism  suggested  by  his 
friend." 

May  23  the  regiment  participated  in  the  grand  mili 
tary  review  at  Washington.  It  was  a  sight  at  once  mag 
nificent,  soul  stirring,  and  inspiring.  After  four  years 
of  unparalleled  war  the  remnant  of  the  army  was  a  force 
mightier  than  any  other  single  army  in  the  world,  and 
nearly  all  of  them  were  war-worn  veterans.  Orders 


1 865.]  THE  DOWNFALL  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.  557 

for  mustering  out  were  received  on  the  27th,  and  the 
officers  went  at  the  laborious  task  of  making  out  the  rolls 
with  a  right  good  will,  for  every  one  was  anxious  to  get 
home.  Indeed,  it  was  like  pulling  teeth  to  get  the  men 
out  for  the  regulation  morning  and  afternoon  drill,  but 
they  seemed  to  derive  considerable  satisfaction  from 
heartily  cursing  the  red-tape  delay  of  the  authorities,  and 
in  anticipating  the  time  when  no  man  could  order  them 
to  "  fall  in"  or  "  right  dress." 

The  final  review  of  the  Second  division  was  by  Gen 
eral  Parke,  in  the  forenoon  of  June  3,  and  in  the  even 
ing  the  camp  of  the  Second  brigade  was  brilliantly  illum 
inated.  Lighted  candles  were  set  on  either  end  of  every 
shelter  tent,  and  squads  of  men  with  lighted  candles 
affixed  to  their  bayonets  inaugurated  a  torchlight  proces 
sion  that  numbered  fully  two  thousand  men  by  the  time 
it  reached  head-quarters,  where  General  Griffin  made 
them  a  short  speech,  which  was  heartily  cheered. 

June  5  all  the  recruits  then  remaining  in  the  Ninth 
New  Hampshire  were  transferred  to  the  Sixth.  The 
majority  of  these  were  excellent  soldiers,  for  the  chaft 
by  this  time  had  been  pretty  thoroughly  sifted,  and  it 
was  with  feelings  of  real  regret  that  the  veterans  said 
good-bye  to  the  comrades  who  had  served  side  by  side 
with  them  so  long  and  so  faithfully. 

By  Saturday,  the  loth,  the  last  mustering-out  roll  had 
been  completed  and  signed  by  the  mustering  officer,  and 
that  evening  the  last  dress  parade  was  held.  General 
Griffin  was  present,  and  at  the  close  shook  hands  with 
each  of  the  officers,  and  addressed  a  short  and  very  ap 
propriate  speech  to  the  men,  after  which  all  united  in 
giving  three  cheers  for  their  brave  and  greatly  beloved 
general.  Early  next  morning  orders  were  received  for 


NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [June, 

the  regiment  to  report  at  Washington  by  ten  in  the  fore 
noon,  and  with  joyful  hearts  the  homesick  soldiers  strukc 
their  tents  and  hastily  packed  up  "  for  the  last  time." 
The  Sixth  New  Hampshire,  who  had  been  their  con 
stant  companions  for  nearly  three  years,  accompanied 
by  the  band  of  the  Fifty-sixth  Massachusetts,  escorted 
the  regiment  to  the  ferry  at  Alexandria.  Arrived  at  the 
foot  of  the  street  near  the  wharf,  the  Sixth  halted  and 
saluted  by  presenting  arms  as  the  Ninth  passed.  The 
Ninth  then  halted  and  returned  the  salute,  after  which 
each  gave  three  cheers  for  the  other  and  the  officers 
shook  hands,  while  the  band  in  touching  strains  played 
"Auld  Lang  Syne." 

The  regiment  reached  Philadelphia  soon  after  sunrise, 
and  proceeding  through  the  city  to  the  ferry,  took  break 
fast  at  the  Cooper  saloon,  where  the  same  hearty  wel 
come  was  accorded  them  that  they  had  received  three 
years  before.  The  afternoon  found  them  in  New  York, 
where  they  marched  up  Courtlandt  and  down  Broadway 
to  the  Battery  barracks,  where  the  men  were  given  a 
hearty  meal.  About  five  o'clock  the  regiment  moved 
back  and  took  the  boat  to  Allen's  Point.  Arriving  here 
in  the  early  morning  of  the  I3th,  cars  were  at  once  taken 
for  Concord. 

The  capital  of  their  native  state  was  reached  about 
noon,  and  the  Ninth,  marching  direct  to  the  state-house 
yard,  were  warmly  welcomed  by  His  Excellency  Gov 
ernor  Smyth,  the  members  of  the  legislature,  and  the 
citizens  of  Concord.  After  some  short  speeches  the 
regiment  was  taken  to  the  Eagle  hotel  and  served  with 
an  excellent  dinner,  and  then  proceeded  to  their  old 
camp  across  the  river,  where  they  were  quartered  for 
the  night. 


1865.]  THE  DOWNFALL  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.  559 

June  14,  leaving  the  barracks,  the  regiment  marched 
to  the  city  under  arms  for  the  last  time.  It  would  be 
difficult  to  say  whether  joy  or  sadness  had  the  stronger 
predominance  in  their  feelings  as  they  passed  through 
the  familiar  streets.  There  was  joy  at  the  thought  of 
being  at  home  once  more,  but  only  sadness  when  they 
gazed  upon  their  thrice  decimated  ranks.  Less  than 
three  short  years  before  they  had  left  the  Capital  city 
nearly  a  thousand  strong,  and  now  numbered  less  than 
two  hundred.  Depositing  their  muskets  at  the  military 
depot,  the  regiment  returned  to  the  state-house  yard, 
where  Colonel  Titus  delivered  up  the  old  colors  to  his 
excellency  the  governor  with  these  brief  but  eloquent 
words  : 

"  GOVERNOR  OF  NEW  HAMPSHIRE:  Two  years  and 
ten  months  ago,  when  leaving  our  own  loved  state  to 
take  our  place  in  the  distant  ranks  of  our  country's  de 
fenders,  this  regiment  here  received  from  the  hands  of 
your  honored  predecessor  this  flag,  with  an  injunction  to 
guard  and  defend  it  as  we  should  maintain  our  own  and 
our  country's  honor,  wherever  we  might  be  by  duty 
called.  How  well  that  charge  has  been  kept,  is  told  in 
part  by  the  names  now  written  upon  it,  in  part  by  the 
names — an  oft-lengthened,  till  now  the  longer  list — of 
those  that  once  stood  in  these  ranks,  who  will  answer  to 
them  never  again.  But  the  whole  story  of  this  tattered 
banner — its  story  of  toil,  of  privation,  of  disease,  of 
death,  and  of  heroic  devotion  through  it  all — by  blaz 
oned  names,  by  tongue  nor  pen,  can  never  be  told. 
Firm  hands  have  carried  it,  stout  hearts  have  followed 
and  defended  it,  brave  men  have  fallen  around  it ;  but  in 
face  of  the  foe  it  has  never  been  lowered, — save  for  an 


560  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [June, 

instant  by  dying  hands,  to  be  grasped  again  by  the  liv 
ing,  and  borne  aloft  to  final  victory  for  us  all.  A  rem 
nant  now  of  its  once  flaunting  folds — so  sadly  emblem 
atic  of  this  remnant  of  these  often  rent  and  shattered 
ranks — bullet-riddled,  war-worn,  and  battle-torn,  but 
without  other  spot  or  stain,  we  return  it  now  to  you  ; 
asking  only  that  it  be  preserved  in  tender  remembrance 
when  we  have  returned  to  our  peaceful  homes." 

The  flags  were  passed  up  to  the  stand,  on  which  stood 
the  governor  with  several  members  of  the  legislature, 
and  as  the  patriotic  strains  of  "The  Star  Spangled  Ban 
ner"  filled  the  air,  tears  dimmed  the  eyes  of  many  a 
hardy  soldier,  unused  to  weeping.  Stirring  speeches 
were  made  by  Governor  Smyth  and  Senator  Hale,  and 
the  regiment  was  dismissed. 

The  following  day  the  men  were  paid  off  and  dis 
charged.  But  one  thing  remained, — for  the  officers 
and  soldiers  to  take  leave  of  each  other.  Their  friend 
ship  had  been  formed  by  a  common  labor  for  a  common 
end,  and  cemented  by  a  common  and  patient  endurance 
of  hardships  and  sufferings  the  most  trying  and  bitter; 
and  as  the  mutual  farewells  were  spoken,  many  a  hearty 
"  God  bless  you  !  "  accompanied  the  parting  salutations. 

Thursday,  the  i5th,  all  the  officers  were  invited  to 
Major  Chandler's  home  in  the  evening,  where  they  were 
splendidly  entertained,  and  served  to  the  best  which  the 
major's  whole-souled  liberality  could  furnish  ;  and  on 
the  following  day  they  were  given  a  farewell  dinner  at 
the  Phenix  hotel  by  Colonel  Titus. 

The  last  tie  had  been  severed,  and  the  Ninth  New 
Hampshire  in  its  organization  as  a  regiment  was  no 
more.  The  story  of  its  heroic  deeds  and  yet  more 


COLORS  OF  THE  NINTH  REGIMENT,  N.  H.  V. 


1865.]  THE  DOWNFALL  OF  THE  CONFEDERACY.  561 

heroic  endurance  has  been  embodied  in  history  ;  its  bat 
tle-flags,  war-worn,  begrimed,  baptized  with  the  blood 
of  their  defenders,  are  sacredly  preserved  in  the  state 
capitol.  Those  grand  old  flags  !  Those  glorious  Stars 
and  Stripes  !  We  see  written  upon  their  folds  to-day 
not  only  the  names  of  the  fields  through  which  they 
were  triumphantly  borne,  and  of  the  patriots  who  died  to 
uphold  them,  but  we  see  in  them  the  emblem  of  national 
unity  and  might,  the  embodiment  of  country,  home,  and 
freedom  ! 


xxxvi 


CHAPTER  XVII. 

PRISONERS-OF-WAR,     AT      MACON     AND      SAVANNAH, 

GEORGIA,  AND  CHARLESTON   AND   COLUMBIA, 

SOUTH  CAROLINA. 

By  Lieut.   C.  IV.  Wilcox. 

This  record  of  my  own  experience  while  held  as  a 
prisoner-of-war,  from  May  12,  1864,  to  March  i,  1865, 
is  a  correct  and  true  statement  of  facts,  taken  from  my 
diary  kept  at  the  time  and  from  memory.  Moreover, 
any  comrade  having  any  experience  of  those  hells  upon 
earth  (rebel  prisons),  who  reads  this,  will  not  only 
vouch  for  its  truthfulness,  but  will  say  the  half  has  not 
been  told.  I  have  read  much  that  has  been  written  by 
those  confined  in  Andersonville  and  other  prisons,  and 
have  never  yet  read  of  an  experience  which  I  thought 
in  the  least  overstated.  In  my  travels  through  the 
South  since  the  war,  where  I  have  met  many  of  the  ex- 
rebel  soldiers,  I  have  never  heard  one  try  to  excuse  or 
justify  their  treatment  of  our  men  in  prison,  though  I 
have  heard  some  of  the  citizens  do  this — and  well  they 
might.  With  this  brief  prefatory  statement,  I  respect 
fully  submit  the  narrative  which  follows  : 

On  the  loth  of  May.  1864,  our  regiment  was  on  the 
road  leading  from  Fredericksburg  to  Spottsylvania,  Va. 
Leaving  this  road  in  the  afternoon,  we  formed  a  line 
of  battle  just  beyond  the  court-house,  behind  some 
breastworks  and  supporting  the  Seventh  Maine  battery, 
remaining  there  over  night  and  until  the  afternoon  of 


LIEUT.  CHARLES  W.  WILCOX,  Co.  F. 


1864.]  PRISONERS-OF-WAR.  563 

the  nth.  Then  we  were  taken  about  a  mile  to  the  rear, 
where  we  drew  five  days  rations ;  and  the  comrades 
may  recall  the  very  fresh  beef  rations  that  were  issued. 
My  supper  of  (neck)  steak  went  into  the  frying-pan 
warm,  but  before  it  was  cooked  the  order  to  fall  in 
came,  and  on  the  march  and  in  a  Virginia  rain-storm  I 
partook  of  my  last  meal  in  "  God's  country."  While 
behind  the  works  we  had  been  all  the  time  under  the 
fire  of  the  rebel  artillery,  but,  as  I  remember,  no  one 
was  injured.  We  returned  just  before  dark  to  the  same 
breastworks,  though  a  little  to  the  right  of  the  position  we 
had  previously  occupied.  Companies  I  and  G  were 
placed  on  the  skirmish  line,  leaving  my  company  (F) 
on  the  extreme  right. 

Lieutenant-Colonel  Babbitt  had  been  put  in  command 
of  the  Thirty-second  Maine,  and  Colonel  Titus,  being 
sick,  had  been  sent  to  the  hospital  in  Fredericksburg  on 
the  pth,  thus  leaving  our  regiment  in  command  of  Maj. 
George  H.  Chandler.  Capt.  A.  J.  Stone  acted  as 
major,  leaving  Lieut.  E.  C.  Babb  in  command  of  Com 
pany  F,  and  Capt.  A.  J.  Hough  was  in  command  of  the 
skirmish  line.  How  it  rained  that  night,  while  we  lay 
on  our  arms  ready  for  an  attack  at  any  moment !  There 
was  very  little  firing,  but  it  was  evident  from  the  sound 
of  the  bullets,  as  they  zipped  over  us,  that  the  rebs  were 
very  near,  and  in  the  pitchy  darkness  our  picket  line 
came  tumbling  over  the  works  several  times,  causing 
the  comrade  whose  heavy  eyelids  were  just  closing  for  a 
nap  suddenly  to  wake  up  and  grab  his  musket. 

The  night  seemed  long,  for  we  were  without  sleep  and 
without  rest,  except  what  we  obtained  by  lying  on  two 
rails,  poles,  or  muskets,  braced  up  on  an  incline  against 
the  earthworks.  We  were  astir  early,  and  at  five  o'clock 


564  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [May, 

were  ordered  forward.  It  was  barely  daylight,  and  a 
light  rain  was  still  falling,  with  a  heavy  fog.  We  had 
moved  forward  but  a  short  distance  when  we  met  our 
picket  line,  with  a  number  of  rebel  pickets  which  they 
had  succeeded  in  capturing,  although  not  until  Lieut. 
George  P.  Sylvester,  of  Company  I,  had  been  mortally 
wounded.  The  bullets  now  began  to  fly  perilously  near, 
but  there  was  no  halt  as  Companies  I  and  G  formed  on 
our  right. 

The  rebels,  for  some  distance  from  their  outer  line  of 
works,  had  formed  an  abatis  by  felling  the  short  pine 
trees  and  trimming  off  the  ends  of  the  limbs,  and  through 
this  we  had  to  charge.  We  advanced  to  within  a  few 
rods  of  their  works,  when  they  poured  a  deadly  fire  into 
us.  We  halted  and  returned  the  fire,  but,  although  the 
men  loaded  and  fired  as  fast  as  they  could,  it  was  impos 
sible  (as  I  saw  at  once  after  my  capture)  to  dislodge  the 
enemy  from  their  strong  position,  and  the  wonder  is  that 
any  man  of  us  escaped  alive.  While  we  lay  there 
firing,  one  of  the  men  near  me  was  shot  through  the 
throat.  Another  was  shot  through  the  arm,  near  the 
shoulder,  and,  the  larger  artery  being  cut,  he  bled  pro 
fusely.  Taking  a  piece  of  rope,  I  bound  his  arm  to 
stanch  the  flow  of  blood,  and  while  doing  this  I  heard  no 
order,  but  saw  the  left  of  the  regiment  retreating  on  the 
double-quick. 

I  therefore  gave  the  order  to  fall  back,  finished  bind 
ing  up  the  comrade's  arm — I  do  not  now  recall  his  name 
— and  started  myself.  I  had  gone  but  a  short  distance, 
however,  when  the  order  to  halt  came  from  the  enemy 
on  my  left  front.  How  quickly  flashed  through  my 
mind  the  thought  of  a  conversation  held  among  my  fel 
low-officers  but  a  few  days  before,  when  we  were  speak- 


1864.]  PRISONERS-OF-WAR.  565 

ing  of  the  terrible  stories  we  had  heard  of  rebel  prison 
life,  and  when  we  all  said  we  would  die  game  before  we 
would  be  taken  prisoners  !  And  one  of  our  number, 
brave  Captain  Edgerly,  of  Company  C,  had,  but  a  few 
days  before,  at  the  Battle  of  the  Wilderness,  given  up 
his  life  rather  than  be  captured.  But  for  myself,  seeing 
no  way  of  escape,  I  surrendered.  My  captors  closed  in 
around  me,  and  at  once  relieved  me  of  my  sword,  belt, 
revolver,  haversack, — which  they  seemed  to  prize  as 
much  as  anything — watch  and  chain,  pocket-book,  and 
some  forty  dollars  in  greenbacks.  They  also  took  some 
photographs,  which  I  begged  them  to  return,  as  they 
were  of  no  value  to  them  ;  but  their  reply  was  that  I 
would  not  need  them  long,  intimating  that  I  would  not 
live  long  to  enjoy  looking  at  them. 

After  relieving  me  of  everything  but  my  canteen,  one 
of  their  number  escorted  me  to  the  rear.  On  our  way 
to  their  line  of  works,  but  a  few  rods  distant,  I  saw  what 
I  had  never  seen  done  by  our  men.  Soldiers,  possibly 
detailed  for  the  purpose, — it  occurred  to  me  then  that  this 
was  the  case — were  going  over  the  field,  picking  up  every 
abandoned  musket,  as  well  as  everything  else  left  by  our 
men ;  and  when,  soon  after,  I  passed  over  their  two 
lines  of  earthworks,  full  of  rebel  soldiers,  I  saw,  as  a  result 
of  this  diligent  research,  more  muskets  and  cartridge  boxes 
than  there  were  men.  I  realized  then,  as  never  before, 
the  earnestness  with  which  the  war  was  being  carried  on 
by  the  South,  contrasting  it,  at  the  same  time,  with  the 
indifference  which  some  Federals  manifested,  even  in 
the  care  of  their  own  equipments. 

No  words  can  express  my  feelings  as  we  passed 
through  their  lines,  seeing  no  hope  of  escape  and  hear 
ing  from  either  side  such  words  as  these  :  "  Kill  the  d — d 


566  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [May, 

Yankee  !  We  have  no  use  for  him."  Passing  on,  we 
soon  met  a  rebel  surgeon,  who  said,  "  Good  morning, 
Lieutenant ;  you  have  a  nice  rubber  coat,  and  I  am  sure 
it  will  fit  me."  It  was  a  good  coat,  as  good  as  any  in 
the  market  at  that  time,  and  had  but  recently  been  sent 
me  by  an  uncle  in  Boston,  so  I  quietly  replied  that  my 
coat  was  private  property  and  all  I  had  to  protect  me 
from  the  weather.  Before  I  could  say  more  he  com 
manded  me  to  come  out  of  it  at  once,  which  I  did.  Then 
he  handed  me  his  rubber  poncho  blanket.  Remarking 
that  I  concluded  this  treatment  was  a  specimen  of  South 
ern  chivalry,  he  replied,  "  Close  your  mouth,  sir,  if  you 
desire  to  live  !  " 

About  one  hundred  rods  farther  to  the  rear  we  joined  a 
large  squad  of  other  captured  Union  officers,  and  there 
my  escort  left  me,  surrounded  by  a  strong  guard.  We 
were  not  then  out  of  reach  of  the  shells  from  our  own 
guns,  and  one  of  our  number  was  severely  wounded. 
Just  at  night  we  were  moved  farther  back,  where  we 
joined  a  large  body  of  other  prisoners.  It  had  rained 
hard  all  day,  and  I  had  had  nothing  to  eat  since  the 
night  before.  Hungry,  wet,  and  cold,  we  lay  down  on 
the  grass  to  rest.  What  a  blessing  it  was  that  that  group 
of  more  than  a  thousand  prisoners,  amid  their  present 
discomforts  and  sufferings,  did  not  know  of  the  more  ter 
rible  sufferings  that  were  in  store  for  them  in  the  rebel 
prison-hells,  farther  south,  for  days,  weeks,  and  months  ! 

Not  until  the  next  morning,  May  13,  did  I  know  that 
any  of  my  regiment  besides  myself  had  been  captured,  but 
I  suffered  mentally  not  a  little  from  that  supposed  fact. 
Meeting  one  of  my  men  in  the  crowd,  we  soon  found  the 
rest,  and  I  then  took  down  their  names  and  companies, 
and  found  that  there  were  sixty-three  of  us  in  all.  I  have 


1864.]  PRISONERS -OF-WAR.  567 

the  original  roster  yet,  a  copy  of  which  is  appended  to 
this  article.  Nearly  all  died  from  exposure  and  starva 
tion  in  rebel  prisons,  and  only  a  few  lived  to  return  to 
"  God's  country  "  at  the  close  of  the  war ;  but  there  is  no 
class  of  men  whose  hands  I  am  more  glad  to  clasp  than 
of  those  who  have  suffered  more  than  words  can  express. 

We  were  soon  separated,  the  officers  being  put  in  a 
squad  together,  apart  from  the  enlisted  men.  About 
three  o'clock  in  the  afternoon  of  the  I3th,  rations  of  one 
pint  of  flour  and  one  quarter  of  a  pound  of  pork  per  man 
were  issued.  We  could  cook  the  pork;  but  what  could 
we  do  with  the  flour?  This  question  was  soon  answered 
by  the  rebel  guard ;  he  also  having  flour,  made  it  into 
dough  by  mixing  with  water  without  salt,  wound  it 
around  a  long  stick,  and  held  it  over  the  fire  until 
baked.  The  reader  will  never  know  just  how  good  such 
a  meal  is  until  he  tries  it  after  severe  fatigue  and  suffer 
ing,  such  as  we  had  experienced  for  nearly  forty-eight 
hours. 

We  started  on  the  march  for  Gordonsville,  Va.,  that 
afternoon,  Captain  Brown  of  the  Thirty-ninth  Virginia 
being  in  command.  The  officers  formed  the  right,  and  the 
enlisted  men  the  rear,  of  the  column.  There  were  thirty- 
eight  Union  officers,  and  over  a  thousand  enlisted  men. 
Following  are  the  names  of  some  of  the  officers  who 
were  my  companions  on  that  memorable  southern  excur 
sion  :  Colonel  Brown,  One  Hundred  and  Forty-fifth 
Pennsylvania ;  Colonel  Swift,  Seventeenth  Michigan ; 
Lieutenant-Colonel  Hickenbottom,  Sixty -fifth  New  York  ; 
Lieutenant-Colonel  Rice,  Nineteenth  Massachusetts ; 
Lieutenant  Barton,  Forty-ninth  Pennsylvania;  Lieuten 
ant  Crawford,  One  Hundred  and  Eighty-third  Pennsyl 
vania  ;  Captain  Manley,  Sixty-fourth  New  York ;  Cap- 


568  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [May, 

tain  Paul,  assistant  adjutant-general,  General  Baxter's 
staff;  Captain  Walpole,  One  Hundred  and  Twenty- 
second  New  York ;  Lieutenants  Stebbins  and  Rowe, 
Seventy-seventh  New  York ;  Lieutenant  Clark,  Fifty- 
ninth  New  York ;  Lieutenant  Fay,  Forty-second  New 
York  ;  Captain  Funk,  Thirty-ninth  New  York  ;  Captain 
Krommeyer,  Fifty-second  New  York ;  Lieutenant 
Fowler,  Fifteenth  New  Jersey ;  Lieutenant  Ferguson, 
First  New  Jersey  ;  Lieutenants  Tilford,  Kendall,  Herbert, 
and  Meyers,  Fiftieth  Pennsylvania. 

On  the  I4th  three  of  us  had  one  pint  of  flour  between 
us,  which  we  mixed  with  water  only  and  fried  into 
griddle-cakes.  This  was  all  we  had  for  a  day's  ration. 
Our  rebel  commander,  Captain  Brown,  was  very  gentle 
manly  toward  us,  but  reports  of  the  men  behind  us 
being  bayoneted  by  the  guard  for  not  keeping  up  and 
for  the  slightest  disobedience  of  orders,  proved  that  the 
lives  of  their  prisoners  were  of  little  account  to  them. 

Halting  once  opposite  a  large  farm-house  which  stood 
some  thirty  rods  from  the  main  road,  and  obtaining  per 
mission  from  Captain  Brown  on  a  verbal  parole  of 
honor,  a  number  of  us  went  to  the  house  to  obtain  food. 
Others  would  have  gone,  but  they  had  no  faith  that  "  the 
milk  of  human  kindness  "  would  be  on  draught  there, 
and  the  result  showed  their  wisdom.  We  found  only  an 
old  man  and  his  wife,  who  gave  us  a  very  warm  recep 
tion, — not  with  food,  however  ;  in  fact,  quite  the  reverse. 
I  can  remember  just  how  that  gray-haired,  old  Virginia 
farmer  looked  when  he  replied,  to  our  eager  question 
ing, — "  Not  a  d — n  crumb  will  I  give  you  !  You  d — n 
Yanks  come  down  here  to  rob  and  murder  us.  You 
ought  to  starve,  and  I  hope  every  d — n  one  of  you  will !" 
That  ended  our  begging  for  food  in  Virginia. 


1864.]  PRISONERS-OF-WAR.  569 

We  arrived  at  Gordonsville  at  noon  of  the  lyth,  and 
here  we  registered  our  names, — not  at  a  hotel,  but  at  the 
provost-marshal's  office.  Our  captors  did  not  seem  to 
consider  that  after  our  long  march  we  were  hungry,  for 
they  issued  only  a  small  piece  of  corn-dodger,  or  bread, 
to  a  man.  Oh,  how  we  missed  our  old  United  States 
coffee  !  We  were  ready  to  part  with  anything  for  food, 
and  selling  my  pocket-knife  for  a  five-dollar  Confederate 
bill,  I  bought  more  bread. 

We  left  Gordonsville  that  afternoon,  at  six  o'clock,  by 
rail,  and  arrived  in  Lynchburg,  Va.,  next  morning  (the 
i8th).  The  officers  were  quartered  in  a  small,  filthy 
room,  on  the  third  floor  of  a  brick  warehouse,  the 
enlisted  men  being  marched  to  a  camp  outside  the  city. 
At  four  o'clock  that  afternoon  each  man  drew  a  small 
loaf  of  corn-dodger  and  a  quarter  of  a  pound  of  wormy 
bacon,  similar  rations  being  issued  on  the  following  day. 
Those  who  had  greenbacks  exchanged  them  for  Confed 
erate  money  at  the  rate  of  one  dollar  for  five.  Tin  dip 
pers  could  be  bought  for  two  dollars  each,  towels  for 
eight  dollars  each,  tooth-brushes  three  dollars,  and  a 
small  cake  of  soap  for  three  dollars.  One  of  our  number 
paid  fifteen  dollars  in  Confederate  money  for  one  pound 
of  Yankee  coffee. 

Obtaining  writing-paper,  I  wrote  my  first  letters  to 
friends  at  home  and  to  the  regiment.  Three  more  offi 
cers  joined  us  here,  from  General  Sigel's  command.  A 
copy  of  the  Richmond  Enquirer  was  handed  around, 
reporting  that  Grant's  army  had  been  badly  beaten  at 
the  Battle  of  Spottsylvania  Court-house,  and  had  sus 
tained  a  loss  of  40,000  men. 

We  left  Lynchburg  at  eight  o'clock  on  the  evening  of 
the  22d,  arriving  at  Danville  at  ten  o'clock  the  following 


57°  NINTH  NE  W  HA  MPSHIRE.  [  May, 

evening.  The  journey  was  made  in  a  freight  car,  and 
as  there  were  forty-three  of  us  as  passengers,  we  were  so 
closely  packed  that  all  could  not  lie  down  at  the  same 
time.  One  door  was  left  half-way  open,  two  of  the 
guard  occupying  the  opening.  The  opposite  door  was 
closed  tight  and  secure,  and  several  of  the  guard  were 
stationed  on  top  of  the  car. 

We  were  suffering  intensely  from  this  overcrowded 
condition,  and  it  was  planned  to  reduce  our  number. 
Obtaining  permission  to  place  some  old  railroad  ties  in 
the  centre  of  the  car,  between  the  guard  and  the  oppo 
site  door,  ostensibly  to  furnish  us  with  more  comfortable 
seats,  but  in  reality  to  hide  the  work  of  those  who  were 
to  use  their  pocket-knives  in  cutting  a  hole  in  the  door 
large  enough  for  a  man  to  crawl  through,  a  double  quar 
tette  was  detailed  to  sit  on  the  railroad  ties  and  take  the 
lead  in  singing  patriotic  songs,  while  all  others  who 
could  joined  in,  so  as  to  drown  the  noise  made  by  the 
cutting.  This  arrangement  worked  to  a  charm,  and  in 
about  an  hour,  the  train  running  not  faster  than  fifteen 
or  twenty  miles  an  hour,  five  officers  swung  themselves 
into  the  outer  darkness,  and  dropped  their  hold  from 
their  friends  inside,  to  land  they  knew  not  where  or 
how  fortunately. 

Just  as  the  last  of  the  five  dropped  from  the  car,  the 
train  stopped  at  a  station  for  wood  and  water,  which  they 
were  obliged  to  do  often,  since  they  had  nothing  to  burn 
but  soft  wood.  We  had  stopped  once  before  since  the 
opening  had  been  made,  but  had  deceived  the  guard 
by  hanging  a  rubber  blanket  over  the 'hole,  the  blanket 
being  near  the  color  of  the  outside  of  the  car.  At  every 
stop  the  rebel  officer  in  charge  would  walk  up  and  down 
each  side  of  the  train,  to  make  sure  everything  was 


1864.]  PRISONERS-OF-WAR.  571 

all  right,  and  this  time  his  vigilant  eye  caught  sight 
of  the  opening.  Instantly  there  was  more  swearing 
and  threatening  than  the  English  language  would  be 
supposed  capable  of,  and  before  starting  again  on  our 
journey  we  were  counted  carefully,  that  the  number  of 
those  who  had  made  their  escape  might  be  ascertained. 
They  could  hardly  control  their  rage,  but  at  the  same 
time  congratulated  themselves  on  their  vigilance  in 
preventing  more  of  us  from  getting  away,  for  they 
realized  that,  had  we  passed  that  station  unobserved, 
nearly  every  man  of  us  would  have  made  his  escape. 
The  five  officers  were  all  recaptured  soon  afterwards, 
and  rejoined  us  in  the  stockade  prison  at  Macon, 
Georgia. 

While  at  Danville  on  the  24th,  we  drew  another 
ration  of  a  small  loaf  of  corn-bread,  bacon,  and  bean 
soup  made  of  wormy  beans  and  water.  We  were  con 
fident  that  there  was  no  meat  in  the  soup,  except  the 
worms,  but  as  this  was  the  first  ration  issued  to  us  for 
forty-eight  hours,  none  of  it  was  wasted.  We  left  Dan 
ville  at  two  o'clock  on  the  afternoon  of  the  25th,  under  a 
much  stronger  guard,  but  with  a  little  more  room,  as  our 
number  had  been  reduced  to  thirty-eight.  Nothing  of 
importance  occurred  as  we  travelled  on  through  Greens 
boro  and  Salisbury  (N.  C.),  and  the  train  reached 
Charlotte  (N.  C.)  at  four  o'clock  in  the  afternoon  of 
the  26th,  where  we  remained  over  night. 

Learning  from  a  colored  man  that  there  were  many 
Union  people  here,  a  party  of  us,  including  Captain 
Paul,  A.  A.  G.,  obtained  a  verbal  parole,  and  made  a 
short  tour  of  the  town,  where  we  found  some  molasses 
and  biscuit,  a  change  from  corn-bread  and  water.  The 
biscuit  cost  two  dollars  per  dozen,  and  the  molasses  five 


572  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [May, 

dollars  a  pint,  and  we  were  informed  that  only  a  limited 
quantity  could  be  had  even  at  that  price. 

We  arrived  at  Augusta,  Ga.,  on  the  afternoon  of  the 
28th,  where  we  found  Captain  Bradford,  a  son  of  ex- 
Governor  Bradford  of  Maryland,  acting  as  war  provost- 
marshal  of  the  city.  He  was  a  young  man  who  put  on 
more  style  in  his  dress  and  military  bearing  than  any 
one  we  had  seen  thus  far  in  the  Confederacy.  We  left 
Augusta  the  following  afternoon,  guarded  by  the  Au 
gusta  home  guards,  composed  of  old  men  and  boys. 
We  were  well  rid  of  our  former  vigilant  guard,  com 
posed  mostly  of  veterans,  and  now  the  situation  seemed 
favorable  for  another  break  for  liberty ;  besides,  we 
were  getting  nearer  Sherman's  lines. 

The  same  plans  were  formulated  and  carried  out  as 
were  made  when  the  first  five  made  their  escape,  and 
there  were  more  railroad  ties,>  and  more  singing  by  the 
"choir,"  though  our  new  guard  objected  to  having  so 
much  Union  music.  They  first  protested,  then  ordered 
us  to  stop  or  they  would  shoot  us.  Their  threats  availed 
nothing,  however,  only  to  cause  us  to  sing  more  and 
louder,  until  again  a  hole  had  been  cut  in  the  rear  door. 
This  time  ten  of  the  unwilling  captives  swung  out  and 
off  the  train  into  outer  darkness  ere  we  were  again 
discovered,  about  forty  miles  from  Macon,  Ga. 

It  was  hoped  that  those  who  made  their  escape  would 
in  some  way  get  through  the  lines  and  join  Sherman's 
army  at  Atlanta,  but  all  of  them  were  hunted  down  by 
bloodhounds  and  brought  into  the  stockade  at  Macon 
soon  after.  Some  of  these  were  badly  bitten  by  the 
dogs,  and  almost  lost  their  lives.  This  reminds  me  of 
what  our  old  quartermaster,  Lieut.  William  Pitt  Moses, 
wrote  in  his  first  letter  to  me  after  my  return  from  prison. 


1864.]  PRTSONERS-OF-WAR.  573 

Referring  to  the  inhuman  treatment  our  soldiers  received 
while  in  rebel  prisons,  he  said,  "If  the  divil  don't  get 
them  fellows,  what  is  the  use  of  having  any  divil?" 

We  reached  Macon,  Ga.,  at  six  o'clock  in  the  morn 
ing,  May  30,  and  by  noon  were  at  Andersonville,  where 
the  enlisted  men  were  unloaded  from  the  cars.  We 
could  see  but  little  of  the  stockade  from  our  car,  which 
soon  returned  to  Macon,  where  we  arrived  at  four  o'clock 
in  the  afternoon.  After  again  being  registered,  we 
entered  the  stockade.  None  but  those  wrho  have  had 
such  an  experience  can  ever  realize  the  reception  given 
us  as  we  passed  through  the  big  gate  into  the  stockade. 
The  wild  cry  came  from  hundreds  of  voices,  "Fresh 
fish  !  Fresh  fish  !  Fresh  fish  !  "  This,  we  afterwards 
learned,  meant  new  arrivals,  and  that  cognomen  was 
given  us  for  the  first  six  months.  The  next  four  months 
we  were  "  suckers,"  the  next  two  months  "  dry  cods," 
and  the  balance  of  the  time  "  dried  herrings."  After 
exchange,  one  was  a  "  pickled  sardine." 

Here  we  met  those  who  had  been  confined  in  Libby, 
and  recently  transferred  to  this  prison.  Many  of  them 
had  been  prisoners  for  a  year,  and  some  for  two  years  ; 
and  they  were  a  dirty,  ragged,  emaciated  set  of  human 
beings.  We  wondered  if  we  should  remain  long  enough 
to  be  in  that  condition,  and  could  but  shudder  at  the 
thought  as  we  looked  at  them.  They  pressed  around  us 
like  cab-drivers  at  a  railway  station,  asking  all  manner 
of  questions,  and  offering  to  carry  our  luggage  and  to 
show  us  good  quarters.  Some  of  our  number,  who  were 
fortunate  in  having  their  overcoats  and  blankets,  were 
glad  to  accept  these  generous  offers,  but  soon  regretted 
the  misplaced  confidence,  for  among  twelve  hundred 
fellow-sufferers  they  could  find  neither  their  new-made 


574  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [June, 

friends  nor  their  luggage.  Having  nothing  but  my 
rubber  poncho  blanket  and  my  canteen,  I  had  little  to 
lose  and  no  favors  to  ask.  Be  it  said,  however,  that 
these  were  exceptional  cases,  and,  though  the  United 
States  officers  there  confined  were  human  and  governed 
by  the  first  law  of  nature,  self-preservation,  yet  as  a  rule 
they  were  honorable  gentlemen. 

Walking  along  towards  the  southern  end  of  the  prison 
with  Captain  Manley,  we  were  invited  to  join  with  mess 
mates  occupying  the  south-east  corner  of  the  last  shed 
on  the  south  side,  near  the  brook  which  ran  diagonally 
across  the  south-west  corner  of  the  stockade,  and  from 
which  all  procured  their  water  for  cooking  and  washing. 

The  following  named  officers  composed  our  mess  from 
that  time  until  we  were  paroled  in  March,  1865  :  Capt. 
B.  G.  Casler,  One  Hundred  and  Fifty-fourth  New 
York  ;  Lieut.  Edward  T.  McCutcheon,  Sixty-fourth  New 
York;  Capt.  J.  A.  Manley,  Sixty-fourth  New  York; 
Lieut.  Samuel  N.  Hedges,  One  Hundred  and  Twelfth 
New  York,  and  myself.  Lieut.  John.  A.  Duren,  of  the 
Fifth  New  Hampshire,  who  was  captured  at  Cold  Har 
bor,  joined  us  on  the  I4th  of  June.  He  also  remained 
with  us  until  we  returned  to  ''God's  country."  We  had 
been  acquaintances  in  Keene,  N.  H.,  before  the  war, 
and  he  insisted  on  my  sharing  his  woollen  blanket,  so 
that  we  bunked  together  ever  after.  He  was  the  life  and 
good  cheer  of  the  mess,  and  no  better  companion  and 
friend  graced  the  army.  To-day,  of  that  "  family,"  our 
old  mess,  only  Lieutenants  McCutcheon  and  Hedges 
and  the  writer  are  living. 

Capt.  W.  K.  Tabb,  of  General  Winder's  staff,  was  in 
command  of  the  prison,  and  he  was  no  lover  of  the 
Yankees  or  their  institutions.  Nearly  every  state  in  the 


1 864.]  PRISONERS  -  OF-  WAR.  575 

Union,  except  those  in  the  extreme  south,  was  repre 
sented  in  this  crowd  of  twelve  hundred  United  States  offi 
cers.  Brigadier-General  Wesseles  was  the  senior  Union 
officer  inside,  and  through  him  all  orders  and  communi 
cations  had  to  pass  to  the  rebel  commander.  Soon  after 
my  arrival  I  found  Gen.  Walter  Harriman  (then 
Colonel),  of  the  Eleventh  New  Hampshire,  who  had 
been  captured  at  the  Battle  of  the  Wilderness  May  5  ; 
also  Capt.  S.  F.  Murray,  of  the  First  New  Hampshire 
Berdan  sharpshooters.  Brigadier-Generals  Neal  Dow 
and  O.  P.  Scanneron  were  also  with  us. 

Camp  Oglethorpe,  our  stockade,  was  built  in  the  same 
way  as  the  one  in  Andersonville,  having  inside  a  large 
one-story  tobacco  warehouse,  in  which  the  field  officers 
were  quartered.  Besides  this  there  were  long,  open 
sheds,  accommodating  about  one  half  the  number  of 
prisoners,  the  rest  having  the  canopy  of  heaven  as  their 
only  shelter.  The  stockade  was  situated  on  the  south 
east  side  of  the  city,  near  the  railroad  round-house. 
Visiting  there  two  years  ago,  I  found  railroad  tracks  and 
freight-houses  covering  the  northerly  part  of  the  ground, 
but  could  easily  point  out  the  lines  of  the  stockade  on  the 
south  and  east  sides,  where  the  brook,  trees,  and  surface 
of  the  ground  were  practically  the  same  as  when  we 
were  there  in  1864. 

Two  of  our  messmates  were  "  old-timers."  They 
were  captured  at  Gettysburg  in  1863,  and  had  been 
through  Libby  prison  and  all  its  vicissitudes.  This  was 
of  great  value  to  us  "  fresh  fish."  We  drew  our  rations 
once  in  five  days.  One  pint  of  corn  meal,  one  ounce  of 
beans  or  peas,  one  quarter  tablespoonful  of  salt,  and  one 
quarter  pound  of  pork,  per  man,  made  up  a  day's  ration. 
We  soon  learned  that  putting  all  our  rations  together, 


576  NINTH  NE  W  HA MPSHIRE.  [June, 

dividing  them  into  five  equal  parts,  and  eating  one  fifth 
each  day,  was  better  than  eating  it  all  in  three  days 
(which  we  could  do  easily),  or  better  than  each  one 
drawing  his  rations  separately.  As  to  the  culinary  uten 
sils  belonging  to  our  mess,  we  were  in  "  light  marching 
order,"  though  much  better  off  than  many  others  ;  every 
one  borrowed  of  his  neighbor  when  his  turn  came  to  cook 
and  eat.  We  had  a  piece  of  the  top  of  an  old  stove 
about  a  foot  square,  one  side  of  which  we  polished  with 
sand,  on  which  we  used  to  fry  griddle-cakes.  When  we 
were  not  using  it  somebody  else  was,  and  it  served  us  to 
the  end.  My  own  personal  kit  consisted  of  one  spoon,  a 
canteen,  half  a  canteen  which  did  duty  as  a  "  plate," 
and  a  small  tin  can. 

We  could  call  our  rations  little  else  than  a  diet  of 
worms,  for  the  beans  and  bacon  were  wormy,  and  the 
c@rn-meal  was  often  sour.  Even  with  this  poor  fare  we 
would  have  been  better  satisfied  had  the  quantity  been 
sufficient.  Our  daily  routine  of  life  was  to  cook,  eat, 
and  wash.  We  had  a  copy  of  the  Bible  and  a  pack  of 
cards,  and  to  kill  time  we  alternated  between  reading 
the  one  and  playing  with  the  other, — when  not  hunting 
in  the  seams  of  our  clothing  for  "gray-backs."  This 
latter  duty  was  imperative,  for  the  very  ground  seemed 
alive  with  the  vermin.  Those  June  days  were  long  and 
very  hot,  but  the  nights  were  cool  and  refreshing. 

On  June  10,  fifty  officers,  comprising  Brigadier-Gen 
erals  Wesseles,  Shaler,  Seymour,  Heckman,  and 
Scanneron,  with  twenty-five  colonels,  including  Harri- 
man  of  the  Eleventh  New  Hampshire,  eleven  lieutenant- 
colonels,  and  nine  majors,  left  for  Charleston,  S.  C., 
ostensibly  for  parole  or  exchange,  but  in  reality  to  be 
placed  in  the  exposed  part  of  the  city,  under  the  fire  of 


LIEUT.  WILLIAM  S.  PILLSBURY,  Co.  A. 


1 864.]  PRISONERS-  OF  -WAR.  577 

our  own  guns  from  Morris  island,  which  were  constantly 
shelling  the  doomed  city.  The  plan  did  not  work  as  the 
rebel  authorities  expected,  however,  and  these  officers 
were  soon  exchanged. 

Special  and  general  orders  for  our  good  behavior  and 
obedience  were  posted  up  inside  the  stockade.  One  of 
these  orders,  or  rules,  was  to  the  effect  that  a  guard  who 
shot  a  Union  prisoner  for  disobeying  any  one  rule  of  the 
prison  would  receive  a  furlough  of  thirty  days.  Another 
was,  that  if  any  one  attempted  to  cross  the  "  dead  line," 
which  consisted  of  a  row  of  stakes  driven  into  the  ground 
a  few  feet  apart,  and  ten  feet  inside  the  stockade,  he 
would  be  called  by  the  guard  to  halt  in  the  daytime,  but 
after  dark  would  be  fired  at  without  any  warning.  On 
June  n,  Lieut.  Otto  Grierson,  of  the  Forty-fifth  New 
York,  went  down  to  the  brook  for  water  after  sundown, 
but  before  dark.  He  was  nearly  or  quite  alone,  though 
scores  of  men  were  but  a  few  feet  away  (it  was  the 
hour  when  many  went  for  water),  and  no  one  perceived 
that  he  was  violating  any  rule  of  the  prison,  yet  he  was 
shot  down  by  the  guard,  and  died  the  next  morning, 
asserting  his  innocence  of  offence  to  the  last.  This  was 
nothing  less  than  cold-blooded  murder.  It  caused  great 
excitement  and  apprehension  inside.  The  rebel  authori 
ties  did  nothing  about  it,  and  as  we  saw  nothing  more  of 
the  guard  who  had  fired  the  shot,  we  concluded  that  he 
obtained  his  thirty-days  furlough. 

We  had  "  mugwumps  "  there  wearing  blue  uniforms, 
and  one  of  them  reported  to  the  commandant  that  we 
were  organizing  for  a  grand  stampede  and  break  for 
liberty.  This  was  false,  but  it  caused  a  doubling  of  the 
guard  and  the  manning  of  the  two  howitzers  located  at 
the  north-west  and  south-east  corners  of  the  stockade. 

XXXVII 


578  NINTH  NE  W  HAMPSHIRE.  [June, 

There  were  fresh  arrivals  from  Grant's  and  Sherman's 
armies  almost  daily,  and  these  served  in  a  measure  to 
relieve  the  dull  monotony  of  prison  life.  My  diary  says 
that  on  the  2Oth  of  June  our  number  had  increased  to 
1,300.  On  the  above  date  forty-four  officers,  and  on  the 
23d  nineteen  more,  came  in,  having  been  captured  on 
General  Sturgis's  expedition,  near  Ripley,  Miss.,  by 
General  Forrest.  On  the  22d  of  June  a  Catholic  priest 
came  in  to  say  mass  to  those  of  that  faith.  He  had  just 
come  from  Andersonville  prison,  the  condition  of  which 
he  denounced  as  simply  barbarous,  reporting  that  there 
were  25,000  of  our  men  huddled  together  in  a  small 
enclosure,  and  that  they  were  dying  at  the  rate  of  sev 
enty-five  per  day.  On  the  24th  Lieut.  O.  W.  Dimmick, 
of  the  Eleventh  New  Hampshire,  came  in  as  a  "  fresh 
fish,"  having  been  captured  on  the  i7th,  in  front  of 
Petersburg,  with  twenty-two  other  officers,  who  came  in 
at  the  same  time. 

As  before  mentioned,  we  were  with  the  old  Libbyites, 
and  a  large  number  of  Colonel  Strait's  same  old  "tun 
nel  crowd"  were  there  also.  Soon  after  our  arrival  tun 
nels  were  commenced,  with  a  view  to  having  them  com 
pleted  ready  for  escape  on  July  3.  Three  tunnels  were 
opened — one  on  the  east,  one  on  the  north,  and  one  on 
the  west  side.  The  entrance  to  the  last  was  in  the  shed 
of  our  mess,  under  one  of  the  bunks  near  my  own,  so 
that  I  knew  what  was  going  on,  and  frequently  at  night 
was  watching  for  the  rebel  guard,  who  was  liable  to 
come  in  at  any  time. 

These  sheds  were  long  and  narrow ;  only  the  roof  was 
covered,  and  that  with  slabs.  They  were  wide  enough 
for  two  rows  of  bunks,  each  of  which  had  the  head 
toward  the  centre,  and  occupied  the  space  of  6  x  2  feet. 


1864.]  PRISONERS-OF-WAR.  579 

The  bunks  were  one  foot  apart,  and  were  made  by 
driving  four  crotched  posts  into  the  ground,  placing  a 
stick  across  each  end,  and  then  laying  poles  about  six 
feet  long  across  the  sticks.  With  only  a  blanket  one 
could  not  make  a  very  soft  and  downy  couch,  yet  it  was 
far  preferable  to  lying  on  the  ground. 

The  tunnels  were  started  under  these  bunks,  and  thus 
were  more  easily  hidden  from  the  watchful  eyes  of  the 
rebel  officers  and  guards.  We  had  no  modern  tools  to 
lighten  the  labor.  There  was  nothing  but  case-knives 
and  spoons  to  dig  with ;  bags  and  ropes,  made  from 
meal-bags  stolen  from  our  rebel  commissary,  were  used 
to  haul  out  the  dirt.  The  excavations  were  begun  by 
sinking  a  perpendicular  shaft  for  about  five  feet,  which 
was  extended  parallel  to  the  surface,  or  nearly  so,  towards 
and  under  the  stockade.  In  each  case,  they  reached  the 
surface  again  under  a  tobacco  warehouse,  which  stood 
a  short  distance  outside.  Competent  engineers  among 
our  number  took  very  accurate  measurements  of  the 
distance  to  be  dug,  both  inside  and  out,  as  well  of  the 
progress  each  night.  The  dirt  was  hauled  out  by  tying 
a  bag  on  an  endless  rope.  The  progress  was  slow 
necessarily,  though  it  was  easy  digging.  Had  we  pushed 
the  work  faster,  we  would  have  been  more  liable  to 
detection.  The  greatest  problem  was  how  to  dispose  of 
the  dirt.  This  was  accomplished  by  mixing  it  with  the 
sweepings  of  the  camp  ; — the  litter  and  refuse  were  gath 
ered  in  piles  each  day,  and  about  twice  a  week  a  mule 
tip-cart,  with  a  colored  man  for  a  driver,  came  in  and 
carted  them  out.  The  tunnels  were  made  as  small  as 
possible.  Only  one  man  was  able  to  work  at  a  time, 
and  he  lying  down  flat.  No  one  could  work  long,  as  we 
had  no  means  of  pumping  in  fresh  air.  The  farther  in 


580  NINTH  NE  W  HA MPSHIRE.  [ J une, 

we  got,  the  more  difficult  the  work  became,  and  the  more 
time  it  required.  Words  can  never  express  the  labor 
and  suffering  those  tunnels  cost. 

Steadily  and  patiently  the  work  went  on,  until  the  26th 
of  June,  when  two  of  the  tunnels  were  ready  to  open  at 
the  farther  end.  It  was  then  planned  to  organize  by 
squads,  and  to  be  ready  to  go  out  on  the  night  of  the  3d 
of  July.  On  the  27th  of  June,  Captain  Tabb  came  in 
and  ordered  us  all  out  of  our  quarters  and  to  the  south 
end  of  the  stockade.  At  that  time  the  entrances  to  the 
tunnels  were  covered  with  boards  and  loose  earth,  so  that 
no  one  could  detect  their  location  by  looking  at  the  sur 
face  of  the  ground ;  but  by  jabbing  around  with  his 
sword,  Captain  Tabb  was  not  long  in  locating  all  three. 
We  were  then  allowed  to  return  to  our  quarters.  Our 
feelings  of  disappointment  can  be  better  imagined  than 
described.  It  was  evident  that  this  was  the  work  of 
another  "  mugwump,"  or  Judas,  and  could  he  have  been 
detected  his  body  would  have  been  cut  into  a  thousand 
pieces. 

Soon  after,  the  lieutenant  of  the  guard  came  in  with  a 
detail  to  see  to  the  filling  up  of  the  tunnel  openings.  A 
captain  of  the  Eighteenth  Connecticut  was  ordered  to 
assist  in  the  work  of  filling.  He  refused  to  do  such 
menial  service,  and  the  rebel  lieutenant  threatened  to 
shoot  him  if  he  did  not  comply.  Great  excitment  pre 
vailed.  Several  officers  of  the  Eighteenth  stood  close  at 
hand  with  billets  of  wood,  ready  to  avenge  their  com 
rade's  death.  The  captain  was  firm.  He  did  not  move, 
but  looking  the  lieutenant  square  in  the  eye,  dared  him 
to  shoot.  The  Confederate  officer's  southern  blood  was 
up.  Knowing  that  he  was  in  the  wrong  he  did  not  fire, 
but  ordered  the  guard  to  take  the  captain  outside,  where 


1864.]  PRISONERS-OF-WAR.  581 

he  was  put  into  a  dungeon  and  bucked  and  gagged. 
This  outrage  was  soon  known,  and  was  communicated 
to  our  ranking  officer  inside,  who,  as  I  remember,  was 
Colonel  Thorpe,  of  the  First  New  York  dragoons.  On 
learning  the  facts,  he  at  once  sent  for  the  commandant, 
Captain  Tabb,  who  was  ordered  to  release  and  return 
the  officer  at  once,  and  at  the  same  time  reminded,  that 
unless  the  demand  was  complied  with,  retaliation  upon 
rebel  officers  held  in  northern  prisons  would  surely  fol 
low.  The  captain  was  at  once  released,  and  as  he 
passed  through  the  office  the  rebel  lieutenant  met  him, 
and,  apologizing,  offered  him  a  drink  of  whiskey.  To 
this  the  captain  replied,  "No,  sir;  I  never  knowingly 

drank  with  a  coward,  and  I  '11  be  d d  if  I  will  now  !  " 

I  record  this  incident  to  show  the  sterling  metal  of  which 
some  of  our  Union  officers  were  made. 

July  4,  Independence  day,  came,  and  although  un 
armed,  and  surrounded  by  an  armed  mob  of  the  rebel 
army  in  the  heart  of  the  Confederacy,  we  decided  to 
have  a  little  celebration  on  our  own  account.  About 
nine  o'clock  that  forenoon  we  assembled  in  and  around 
the  warehouse.  There  was  not  even  standing-room  for 
all,  but  the  writer  was  fortunate  enough  to  be  among 
those  inside.  Two  small  United  States  flags,  about  4x6 
inches,  constituted  all  of  the  National  emblem  that  we 
had  to  display,  and  these  were  placed  above  the  north 
and  south  doors,  where  all  could  see  them.  The  exer 
cises  opened  with  prayer  by  one  of  the  chaplains.  Then 
followed  national  and  patriotic  songs,  and  as  I  recall  the 
faces  of  that  assembly  of  hapless  captives,  I  can  see  the 
tears  rolling  down  their  cheeks,  some  who  had  been 
long  in  prison  breaking  completely  down,  unable  to  con 
trol  their  emotions.  As  I  remember  it,  this  must  have 


582  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [July, 

been  the  most  sincerely  patriotic  Fourth  of  July  celebra 
tion  that  I  have  ever  witnessed.  Before  much  oratory 
had  been  indulged  in,  however,  our  celebration  was  cut 
short  by  the  sudden  appearance  of  our  rebel  keeper, 
Captain  Tabb.  Colonel  Thorpe  was  about  speaking 
when  Captain  Tabb,  with  drawn  sword  and  his  face 
white  with  rage,  said, — "  Stop  this  !  You  Yankees  can't 
celebrate  this  day  in  Georgia.  Every  man  of  you  go  to 
your  quarters  ! "  Much  talk  and  guying  was  indulged 
in,  but  our  celebration  of  the  glorious  Fourth  was  ended. 
I  was  quite  ill  for  some  days  after  this,  and  my  diary 
is  incomplete  until  the  27th  of  July.  In  the  mean  while 
General  Stoneman,  from  General  Sherman's  army  at 
Atlanta,  Ga.,  had  made  a  raid  on  the  city  for  the  purpose 
of  recapturing  us,  but  was  defeated  and  himself  taken 
prisoner. 

On  the  loth  of  July  one  hundred  and  eleven  officers 
from  Grant's  army,  and  six  from  Sherman's  army,  came 
in  as  prisoners,  while  1,700  privates  passed  through  the 
city  on  their  way  to  Andersonville.  Great  excitement 
prevailed  in  the  city  on  account  of  Sherman's  raid,  as  we 
learned  from  the  colored  men  who  came  in  on  duty,  and 
from  some  of  the  guard  who  were  good  Union  men  at 
heart  and  who  would  give  us  the  tip  when  sure  that  it 
was  safe  for  them  to  do  so.  Nearly  every  issue  of  the 
Macon  Telegraph,  a  most  bitter  Secesh  sheet,  making 
many  false  and  absurd  statements  to  keep  up  a  bold 
front,  was  also  smuggled  in  to  us. 

The  authorities,  fearing  another  raid  for  our  rescue, 
commenced  transporting  us,  on  the  27th,  to  Charleston, 
S.  C.,  and  Savannah,  Ga.  Six  hundred  left  on  the  2pth, 
and  were  taken  to  Savannah,  the  rest  going  to  Charles 
ton.  We  were  loaded  into  freight  cars,  there  being 


1864.]  PRISONERS-OF-WAR.  583 

forty-six  in  our  car.  The  weather  was  very  hot,  and  we 
should  have  suffered  much  had  the  journey  been  long. 
Many  were  ill,  but  the  "Johnny  rebs"  never  started  on  an 
excursion  with  a  more  jolly  crowd.  We  had  a  vain  hope 
that  Sherman's  cavalry  would  cut  the  railroad,  but,  as  we 
had  not  yet  suffered  enough  for  the  cause,  that  night 
found  us  in  the  city  of  Savannah. 

We  were  placed  in  the  yard  of  the  old  United  States 
marine  hospital,  the  three  acres  of  ground  being  enclosed 
by  a  high  brick  wall,  while  the  guard  was  stationed  on  a 
staging  erected  near  the  top  and  on  the  outer  side.  The 
weather  was  intensely  hot,  and  the  brick  walls  surround 
ing  the  yard  not  only  added  to  the  heat,  but  also  kept  out 
what  little  air  might  be  stirring.  Colonel  Wayne,  of  the 
First  Georgia,  was  the  commandant.  He  was  very 
much  of  a  gentleman,  and  stated  at  once  that  while  under 
his  command  we  should  have  enough  to  eat  and  be  made 
as  comfortable  as  possible.  He  fulfilled  his  promise  by 
first  issuing  one  hundred  A  tents, — a  tent  to  every  six 
men.  Besides  giving  us  corn-meal,  he  placed  a  hogs 
head  of  rice  where  we  could  help  ourselves,  and  every 
morning,  at  six  o'clock,  he  issued  a  pound  of  fresh  beef 
to  each  man. 

Seventy-five  of  the  600  who  were  the  last  to  leave 
Macon,  made  their  escape.  August  i  the  railroad  over 
which  they  and  ourselves  had  passed,  was  torn  up  and 
the  bridges  burned  by  Sherman's  cavalry,  showing  how 
near  we  came  to  joining  that  army. 

Notwithstanding  our  relatively  comfortable  condition, 
so  much  improved  over  that  at  Macon,  plans  for  escap 
ing  were  at  once  commenced,  and  two  tunnels  were 
nearly  completed  when,  on  August  8,  a  cow  broke 
through  one  of  them  and  our  plans  were  exposed.  No 


584  NINTH  NE  W  HAMPSHIRE.  [September, 

further  attempt  was  made  to  escape  while  we  were  at 
Savannah.  Several  officers  died  there,  and  I  would  not 
neglect  to  mention  the  loyalty  and  kindness  displayed  by 
the  matron  of  the  hospital,  whose  husband  was  not  only 
true  to  the  flag,  but  was  serving  in  the  field  under  Sher 
man.  Unlike  the  hundreds  who  were  dumped  into  a 
hole  and  covered  with  a  little  earth,  without  even  a 
blanket  for  a  robe,  each  one  who  died  at  Savannah  was 
furnished  with  a  coffin  by  this  noble  lady  at  her  own 
expense. 

Colonel  Wayne  not  only  furnished  cooking  utensils, 
but  allowed  lime  and  brick  to  be  brought  in,  so  that  a 
number  of  nice  ovens  were  built,  adding  much  to  our 
comfort  and  convenience.  My  own  mess  was  especially 
favored  here,  for  Captain  Casler  was  appointed  sutler 
inside  the  prison.  In  every  prison  sutlers  were  allowed, 
of  whom  we  could  purchase  meats,  vegetables,  and 
groceries, — if  we  had  money,  and  enough  of  it.  Bv 
this  means  we  managed  to  exchange  our  corn-meal  at 
twenty-five  cents  per  quart  for  potatoes  at  twenty-four 
dollars  per  bushel,  and  for  flour  at  one  dollar  and  fifty 
cents  per  pound.  Books  were  obtained,  and  we  passed 
more  time  in  reading  than  in  playing  cards. 

September  2  the  surgeons  and  chaplains  left  for 
exchange.  On  the  I2th,  news  reached  us  that  an  arm 
istice  of  ten  days  had  been  agreed  upon  between  the 
armies  of  Sherman  and  Hood,  commencing  that  morn 
ing,  and  it  was  also  reported  that  a  general  exchange  of 
prisoners  would  be  made  in  a  few  days  ;  but  only  the 
"fresh  fish"  took  any  stock  in  such  reports,  notwith 
standing  orders  were  also  received  for  us  to  be  ready  to 
leave  for  Charleston,  S.  C.,  the  next  morning. 

We  arrived  there  on  the  afternoon  of  the  I3th.     On 


1864.]  PRISONERS-OF-WAR.  585 

our  free  ride  from  Savannah  to  Charleston,  in  freight 
cars,  we  were  guarded  by  the  Georgia  state  militia,  or 
"home  guards,"  who  were  not  soldiers  in  any  sense 
except  that  they  carried  muskets  and  seemed  anxious  for 
an  opportunity  to  use  them.  Owing  to  their  familiarity 
with  Sherman  and  his  "  bummers,"  who  were  coming 
nearer  every  day,  they  took  advantage  of  this  occasion 
to  abuse  us  in  every  way  possible.  Arriving  at  Charles 
ton,  we  were  marched  into  the  city  jail-yard,  containing 
less  than  an  acre  and  surrounded  by  a  brick  wall  twelve 
feet  high,  a  place  which  we  found  in  the  most  filthy  con 
dition  possible.  The  jail  and  work-house  occupied  the 
north  side,  next  to  the  street.  Enough  A  tents  to  accom 
modate  200  out  of  the  600  prisoners  were  issued. 

Besides  the  filth,  owing  to  bad  or  no  drainage,  we 
were  often  flooded  when  it  rained.  Our  only  water, 
which  was  very  brackish,  was  from  an  artesian  well. 
Captain  Mobley,  of  the  Thirty-second  Georgia,  was  in 
command.  The  first  600  who  left  Macon  occupied 
Roper  hospital,  near  by,  and  the  squad  that  had  left  last 
occupied  the  north  wing  of  the  jail.  From  our  quarters 
we  were  able  to  communicate  with  the  latter.  Our 
rations  here  were  no  better  than  our  quarters,  and  this 
made  the  change  from  Savannah  seem  still  worse.  They 
consisted  of  corn-meal,  rice,  wormy  beans  and  wormy 
bacon,  with  occasionally  a  small  quantity  of  flour.  The 
only  utensils  given  us  were  a  few  iron  kettles ;  but  our 
men  had  toted  our  piece  of  old  stove-top  along,  hence  we 
could  fry  griddle-cakes  when  we  had  fuel.  At  one  time 
we  were  four  days  without  wood. 

The  only  pleasure  and  recreation  that  we  had  was 
obtained  from  watching  the  shells  as  they  came,  almost 
continuously,  from  the  Federal  guns  on  Morris  island. 


586  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [September, 

In  the  daytime,  as  well  as  by  night,  we  could  see  the 
fiery  fuses,  looking  like  big  comets,  coming  directly 
towards  us.  As  the  gunners  on  the  island  knew  our 
location,  few  pieces  of  shell  struck  in  the  yard  or  on  the 
jail,  and  no  one  there  was  injured,  though  other  build 
ings  were  set  on  fire  nearly  every  day  and  night.  On 
one  occasion,  the  i8th,  the  buildings  across  the  street 
from  us  were  ablaze.  The  city  fire  department  was  on 
hand  to  extinguish  the  flames,  but  our  gunners  dropped 
their  shells  so  near  and  fast  that  the  firemen  wrere  driven 
away,  and  it  was  reported  that  thirty  buildings  were 
destroyed.  The  cursing  on  the  outside,  and  the  cheer 
ing  and  singing  by  "  we-uns "  on  the  inside,  of  the 
prison,  made  it  a  night  never  to  be  forgotten. 

On  the  22d,  Gen.  B.  F.  Butler's  letter  on  the  exchange 
of  prisoners,  in  which  he  stated  that  there  could  be  no 
exchange  unless  the  colored  soldiers  were  included,  was 
published  in  the  Charleston  Mercury.  These  terms 
were  bitterly  denounced  by  the  Mercury,  as  well  as  by 
the  whole  Confederate  government,  but  nearly  every 
officer  in  our  prison  sustained  the  general,  who  at  that 
time  was  their  commissioner  of  exchange. 

On  the  26th,  about  sixty  out  of  the  600,  including 
my  own  mess  of  six,  were  transferred  to  the  work-house, 
or  jail,  about  200  more  wrere  paroled  and  sent  over  to 
the  Roper  and  Marine  hospitals,  eighty-six  were  sent 
down  to  Broad  street,  and  the  remainder  kept  in  the 
yard.  Lieutenant  Duren  and  myself  occupied  the  south 
end  cell,  on  the  west  side,  in  the  second  story  of  the  cor 
ridor,  the  remaining  four  of  our  mess  being  placed  on 
the  floor  below.  This  cell  was  of  solid  masonry,  with  a 
heavy,  iron-grating  door.  Fortunately  the  turnkey 
never  came  around,  and  we  were  allowed  to  go  in  and 


1864.]  PRISONERS-OF-WAR.  587 

out  at  will,  as  did  all  others,  and  once  a  day  we  were 
permitted  to  stay  in  the  yard  an  hour.  We  missed  the 
pleasure  of  watching  the  shells  come  over  from  Morris 
island,  but  otherwise  were  much  better  provided  for  than 
at  our  old  quarters,  being  out  of  the  hot  midday  sun,  as 
well  as  the  wet  and  filth,  so  that  we  could  keep  compara 
tively  clean,  and  were  less  troubled  with  "  gray-backs." 
The  sanitary  accommodations  of  both  the  yard  and  jail, 
however,  were  little  better  than  are  usually  given  to  dumb 
animals. 

We  had  many  good  jolly  comrades  with  us  at  all  times, 
who  could  make  life  endurable  even  under  the  most 
adverse  circumstances.  It  was  here  that  I  first  became 
acquainted  with  Lieut.  W.  A.  McGinnis,  of  the  Nine 
teenth  Massachusetts,  whose  genuine  Irish  wit  and 
humor  would  cause  the  most  forlorn  to  laugh  through 
his  tears. 

On  the  27th  of  September  we  read  Jeff  Davis's  speech 
on  the  "  Situation  and  Condition  of  the  Two  Opposing, 
Rebel  and  Union,  Forces,"  published  in  the  Charleston 
Mercury  of  that  date,  having  been  delivered  in  Macon, 
Ga.,  the  day  before.  In  its  editorial  the  Mercury  called 
it  a  slim  affair,  and  charged  him  with  misrepresenting 
the  facts.  On  the  same  date  General  Stoneman  left  us 
for  exchange.  On  the  29th  a  blockade  runner  came 
into  prison  and  offered  to  exchange  rebel  money  for  bills 
of  exchange  on  United  States  paymasters,  United  States 
banks,  or  business  firms  in  the  North,  offering  two 
dollars  for  one,  in  rebel  money,  on  the  face  value.  At 
that  time  thirty  dollars  in  rebel  money  was  worth  only 
one  dollar  in  greenbacks,  yet  nearly  all  accepted  this 
opportunity  of  bettering  their  condition,  even  if  it  did 
come  high.  We  were  then  paying  in  rebel  money  the 


588  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [September, 

following  prices  :  One  peck  of  potatoes,  eleven  dollars  ; 
eggs,  six  dollars  per  dozen ;  milk,  one  dollar  and  fifty 
cents  per  quart;  soda,  eight  dollars  per  pound;  bread, 
one  dollar  and  twenty-five  cents  per  small  loaf;  onions, 
fifty  cents  each ;  and  molasses,  six  dollars  per  quart. 

I  made  out  a  power  of  attorney  on  a  United  States 
paymaster  for  fifty  dollars,  receiving  therefor  one  hun 
dred  dollars  in  Confederate  money.  Lieutenant  Duren 
gave  me  his  note  for  twenty-five  dollars  as  a  guaranty 
of  his  share  of  the  venture,  and  I  think  it  was  Captain 
Casler  who  gave  a  bill  of  exchange  for  a  like  amount. 
We  might  just  as  well  have  doubled  or  tripled  the 
amount,  but  rumors  were  current  that  a  general  ex 
change  was  near  at  hand,  in  which  case  we  did  not  care 
to  have  a  great  amount  of  Confederate  notes  on  our 
hands,  at  that  price.  How  much  we  afterwards  regretted 
one  of  our  greatest  mistakes,  the  reader  will  imagine  on 
reading  of  our  experience  of  five  months  more  of  prison 
life.  I  remember  inquiring  of  the  blockade  runner 
(whose, name  I  do  not  find  recorded)  how  much  of  the 
paper  he  expected  to  run  through  the  blockade  and  col 
lect.  His  reply  was,  "  All  of  it;  and  if  we  collect  one 
fourth  of  the  face  values,  our  profits  will  be  quite  satis 
factory,"  intimating  that  the  rebel  money  had  cost  but 
little. 

We  soon  after  learned,  through  legal  counsel  among 
our  number,  that  he  could  not  legally  collect  a  dollar. 
About  two  months  after  my  discharge  from  the  army, 
and  after  I  had  settled  my  accounts  with  the  United 
States  government,  I  received  a  notice  from  a  lawyer 
in  New  York  to  the  effect  that  he  held  my  power  of 
attorney  on  a  United  States  paymaster,  and  wanted 
to  know  the  name  of  the  paymaster  whom  he  should 


1864.]  PRISONERS-OF-WAR.  589 

draw  on.  To  this  I  have  never  replied,  and  to  this 
day  my  only  regret  is  that  we  did  not  obtain  a  much 
larger  amount.  I  still  hold  the  note  against  Duren, 
which  I  prize  as  a  relic,  and  which  is  not  on  the  market 
at  any  price. 

The  next  day,  which  was  the  3Oth  of  September,  all 
the  navy  officers  left  for  exchange.  On  the  following 
day  one  of  the  colored  prisoners,  who  had  been  placed 
in  the  west  wing  of  the  prison,  was  shot  in  a  most  brutal 
manner  for  no  other  offence  than  looking  out  of  the 
window.  They  said  that  he  was  "only  a  nigger,"  yet 
the  officers  who  were  with  us,  and  who  had  been  confined 
in  Libby  prison,  alleged  that  they  had  been  shot  at  for 
the  same  offence.  Fortunately  our  own  location  in  the 
corridors  was  so  far  from  the  outside  windows  that  we 
could  give  the  guard  no  opportunity  to  shoot.  In  fact, 
we  saw  very  little  of  the  rebel  guard,  or  of  the  outside 
world  in  general. 

Although  not  exposed  to  the  weather,  the  close  con 
finement  in  this  dark,  damp,  dungeon-like  place,  with 
the  poorest  kind  of  rations  and  not  half  enough  of  them, 
began  to  tell  on  our  spirits  and  on  our  health  as  well. 
"Yellow  Jack"  had  also  been  making  himself  known 
inside  the  jail,  although  not  to  such  an  alarming  extent 
as  outside,  and  the  order  to  be  ready  to  leave  with  one 
day's  cooked  rations  was  received  with  far  greater  re 
joicing  than  the  reader  can  imagine.  October  5,  at  four 
o'clock  in  the  morning,  we  left  the  jail  and  marched  to 
the  depot,  where  we  took  the  train  for  Columbia,  S.  C. 
How  glorious  it  was  to  find  ourselves  in  the  open  fresh 
air !  But  what  sights  met  our  eyes  on  either  hand ! 
Buildings  were  knocked  to  pieces  by  shot  and  shell, 
while  many  had  been  burned  ;  and  with  the  exception  of 


590  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [October, 

a  few  colored  people  and  rebel  soldiers,  the  city  seemed 
deserted.  In  many  of  the  streets  through  which  we 
passed  we  saw  the  grass  growing  up  through  the  pave 
ments,  proving  that  the  prostration  of  the  life  and  busi 
ness  of  the  city  had  not  been  of  recent  date. 

Visiting  the  city  again  in  1890,  I  saw  a  great  change 
in  its  looks  and  appearance.  On  going  to  my  old  quar 
ters  in  the  jail,  I  found  the  yard  and  outside  of  the  build 
ings  the  same  as  when  I  was  lodged  therein  in  1864. 
The  inside,  however,  had  been  wholly  remodelled,  and 
was  fitted  up  with  more  modern  improvements  than  in 
our  day.  One  thing  that  I  missed,  and  which  I  have  not 
before  mentioned,  was  the  old  gallows,  which  formerly 
stood  on  the  south  side,  within  the  yard;  this  had  been 
removed. 

How  often  we  have  heard  it  said,  both  during  and 
since  the  war,  "The  negro  is  no  good!"  Yet  in  1890 
the  jailer,  who  was  too  ill  to  be  on  duty,  was  the  only 
white  officer.  The  officer  in  charge,  and  all  the  others, 
were  colored  ;  and  this  was  not  by  any  means  an  iso 
lated  case,  as  I  learned  by  travelling  through  the  South. 
I  was  more  impressed  then  than  ever  before,  with  the 
thought  that  no  race  of  people,  after  years  of  slavery  and 
bondage,  would  have  made  much  better  progress  towards 
caring  for  themselves  under  like  circumstances. 

Arriving  at  Columbia,  on  the  morning  of  October  6, 
1864,  we  were  corralled  in  the  depot  yard,  and  guarded 
by  the  Columbia  cadets.  Words  fail  to  express  our 
sufferings  as  we  huddled  together  in  that  small  space, 
with  no  shelter  from  the  continuous  rain,  and  with  noth 
ing  to  eat  until  the  morning  of  the  7th  except  what  was 
left  from  the  one  day's  ration  issued  on  the  night  of  the 
4th.  That  morning  Lieuts.  E.  B.  Parker  and  H.  R. 


1864.]  PRISONERS-OF-WAR.  591 

Chase,  of  the  First  Vermont  heavy  artillery,  were  brought 
in,  having  been  captured  after  making  their  escape, 
with  about  one  hundred  others,  on  the  way  from  Charles 
ton.  Both  had  been  badly  bitten  by  bloodhounds,  from 
the  effects  of  which  Parker  died  on  the  I3th.  The  rebels 
maintained  that  he  died  of  yellow-fever,  and  it  is  no 
wonder  they  desired  to  make  it  appear  that  such  was  the 
case. 

That  same  day  (the  7th)  in  the  afternoon  we  were 
marched  across  the  Congaree  river,  and  two  miles  west 
of  the  city,  to  Camp  Sorghum,  where  we  camped  in  an 
open  field,  occupying  about  four  acres  and  bounded  on 
two  sides,  west  and  south,  by  second-growth  pine  timber. 
We  were  surrounded  by  a  strong  guard  of  the  Thirty- 
second  Georgia.  Stakes,  driven  into  the  ground  ten 
feet  inside  the  guard  line,  formed  what  was  called  the 
"  dead  line,"  with  stricter  orders  against  transgressing 
than  at  Macon.  We  had  no  shelter,  except  what  we 
made  ourselves  from  brush  and  pine  boughs.  They  gave 
us  neither  ax,  spade,  shovel,  nor  cooking  utensils.  The 
latter  we  had  little  use  for,  however,  since  they  issued  for 
a  day's  ration  only  one  pint  of  corn-meal,  ground  cob  and 
all,  one  gill  of  sorghum,  a  teaspoonful  of  salt,  and  a  very 
small  piece  of  soap.  Not  a  mouthful  of  meat  was  dealt 
out  for  one  hundred  and  thirty  days,  and  that,  too,  at  a 
time  of  the  year  when  we  most  needed  it.  How  we 
wished  that  we  had  our  old  commandant,  Colonel  Wayne, 
who  fed  us  so  generously  when  in  Savannah  ! 

October  8  several  of  the  officers  received  boxes  of 
clothing,  etc.,  from  home,  and  there  was  also  a  box  from 
the  Sanitary  commission,  containing  shirts,  drawers, 
quilts,  towels,  and  handkerchiefs,  which  were  distributed 
among  the  most  needy.  All  the  boxes  had  been  opened 


592  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  .       [October, 

by  the  rebel  officer  in  charge,  and  many  had  been  rifled 
of  the  most  valuable  articles  of  clothing. 

Of  the  100  officers  who  escaped  when  coming 
from  Charleston,  almost  all  were  recaptured,  being 
brought  in  in  squads  nearly  every  day.  Several  died 
here  of  yellow-fever,  but  the  open  air  and  frosty  nights 
soon  froze  it  out.  October  20  eight  axes  and  eight 
shovels  were  issued  for  the  1,500  of  us  to  use.  The 
reader  can  imagine  how  busily  those  axes  were  kept  at 
work,  from  early  morn  until  dark,  in  obtaining  wood  for 
fuel  and  shelter.  Still,  we  so  arranged  it  among  our 
selves  that  there  was  no  quarrelling  or  faultfinding. 

At  first  the  guard  line  was  extended  for  an  hour  each 
day,  but  the  distance  soon  became  so  great  that  they 
would  allow  four  and  six  to  go  out  with  one  guard. 
Taking  advantage  of  this,  some  would  run  for  dear 
life,  while  others  would  capture  the  guard  and  start  for 
Sherman's  lines.  Then  they  commenced  paroling  us, 
and  these  paroles  were  copied  and  forged,  and  escapes 
were  of  e very-day  occurrence.  Below  is  a  form  of  the 
parole  issued  : 

CONFEDERATE  STATES  MILITARY  PRISON. 

October  15,  1864. 

I, ,  prisoner-of-war,  confined  near  the  city  of  Colum 
bia,  S.  C.,  Confederate  States  of  America,  do  pledge  my  parole,  as  a 
military  .man  and  a  man  of  honor,  that  I  will  not  attempt  to  escape  from 
the  prison  aurhorities,  nor  pass  beyond  the  prison  limits  more  than  three 
quarters  of  a  mile,  and  at  the  expiration  of  the  time  named  in  the  parole 
[six  hours]  I  will  return  promptly  to  the  adjutant's  office  and  have  the 
same  revoked. 

It  is  understood  by  me  that  this  parole  is  voluntary  on  my  part,  and 
that  it  is  given  with  a  view  to  securing  privileges  which  cannot  other 
wise  be  obtained. 

[Signed] 


HARRY  HALE  (ORIN  VARNEY),  Co.  K. 


1864.]  PRISONERS-OF-WAR.  593 

The  cold  weather  was  fast  approaching,  and  death 
from  starvation  and  exposure  was  staring  us  in  the  face. 
We  had  no  rest  nights,  when  we  could  barely  keep  warm 
by  walking.  Sleep  was  obtained  only  by  day,  as  the 
heat  of  the  sun  gave  opportunity.  Many  were  too  sick 
or  too  feeble  to  attempt  an  escape,  but  those  who  were 
able  ran  the  risk  of  being  shot  by  the  guards,  while  they 
crawled  up  near  the  dead  line  and  behind  some  of  the 
huts,  where  a  squad  of  four,  six,  or  more,  would  wait  for 
an  opportune  moment,  when  one  of  their  number  would 
volunteer  to  rush  in  between  the  guards  and  draw  their 
fire.  The  remainder  would  then  run  for  liberty  and 
"  God's  country,"  with  clubs  in  their  hands  to  ward  off 
a  bayonet  charge.  Some  of  us  were  always  posted  as 
to  the  number  who  had  made  their  escape  each  day 
and  night,  so  as  to  make  the  count  good  at  the  roll-call 
which  came  every  morning  at  eight  o'clock.  The  rebel 
authorities  knew,  or  thought  they  knew,  by  this  roll-call 
how  many  had  made  their  escape,  but  they  got  badly 
mixed  sometimes  in  their  count,  from  the  fact  that  many 
were  captured  and  returned. 

The  weather  was  so  cold,  and  we  were  so  very  thinly 
clad,  that  we  were  drawn  up  in  line  by  fours,  and  as  fast 
as  those  on  the  right  of  the  line  were  counted  they  were 
allowed  to  break  ranks  and  return  to  quarters.  Then 
about  the  same  number  as  had  escaped  would  form  on 
the  left,  and  be  again  counted.  This  trick  worked  well 
until  on  one  cold  morning  (November  6)  we  were 
ordered  to  remain  in  line  until  all  were  counted.  Our 
captors  then  learned  that  three  hundred  and  twenty  were 
missing,  leaving  eleven  hundred  and  forty-seven  in  camp. 
Of  course  they  were  mad,  but  they  could  only  call  it  "  a 
d d  Yankee  trick."  They  afterwards  made  us  all 

XXXVIII 


594  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [November, 

stand  in  line  until  counted,  but  this  did  not  stop  our  offi 
cers  from  running  the  dead  line  and  the  risk  of  being 
shot,  for  nearly  every  night  two  or  more  would  escape. 
Quite  a  number  were  hit,  but  I  have  no  record  of  any 
one  being  killed  or  mortally  wounded.  Many  of  those 
who  had  been  recaptured  made  their  escape  again,  some 
not  remaining  inside  the  camp  more  than  one  night.  My 
friend,  Lieut.  D.  C.  Edwards  of  the  One  Hundred  and 
Third  Pennsylvania,  and  O.  M.  McCall  of  the  Second 
Maryland,  with  pieces  of  blanket  tied  on  their  feet  in 
place  of  shoes,  were  among  the  lucky  ones.  I  was  too 
ill  to  even  make  the  attempt,  but  listened  to  many  thrill 
ing  adventures  of  those  who  had  tried  and  been  re 
captured.  Generally  the  escapers  fared  better  outside 
the  prison  than  they  did  inside,  for  the  colored  people 
were  always  ready  to  divide  their  last  morsel  of  food, 
and  ran  great  risk  of  losing  their  own  lives  in  procuring 
food  and  in  piloting  the  fugitives  to  safe  hiding-places. 

No  more  loyal  people  ever  lived  than  these  same 
colored  people  who  assisted  Union  officers  in  getting 
through  to  our  lines.  Although  they  had  been  in  bond 
age  as  slaves  since  their  birth,  knowing  little  except  to 
obey  their  masters,  I  have  never  learned  of  a  single 
instance  where  they  betrayed  the  trust  reposed  in  them. 
When  Union  officers  were  secreted  in  their  houses,  which 
were  usually  located  near  those  of  their  masters,  they 
would,  when  threatened,  deny  all  knowledge  of  any 
strangers  being  about  their  premises.  I  will  relate  only 
one  instance  to  show  their  devotion  to  our  cause  : 

A  party  of  escaped  prisoners  had  reached  a  town  not 
safe  to  pass  through,  and  hemmed  in  on  either  side  by 
a  dense  forest  and  swamp.  They  could  hear  the  barking 
of  the  bloodhounds  who  were  following  on  their  tracks, 


1 864- 1  PKJSOWERS-  OF-  WA  R. 

and  presently  they  saw  a  colored  man  approaching  them, 
bridle  in  hand,  to  catch  a  horse.   They  were  on  the  edge 
of  the  woods,  and  as  they   gave  a  low  whistle  to  him,  he 
first  looked  cautiously   around  to  see  if  any  one  were  in 
sight,    and  then  came  to   them.     "Law  sakes,  massa  !" 
he  exclaimed,  "  De  whole  town  be  out  huntin'  you-uns, 
and  massa  done  send  me  arter  this  'ere  hoss  so  he  kin  go 
too.     Duz  you  hear  them  'ere   hounds?     Well,  them  be 
fer  you.     Massa  kill  me,  shuah,  if  I  don'  fetch  this  'ere 
hoss  quick,  but  I  'se  gwine  ter  show  you  where  ter  go  ter 
fin'  'nother  cullud  man  [giving  his  name]  on  t'other  side 
the   swamp,    an'  he'll    show    you-uns    furder  on."      He 
piloted  them  through  the   swamp,  and  then   returned  for 
the  horse.     The  party  was  afterwards  overtaken,  but  the 
officer  who  related  to  myself  and  others  this  instance  of 
the  fidelity  of  our  colored  allies   said,  "I  have  always 
been   a    Democrat,    and    naturally    a    nigger-hater,    but 
henceforth  I  will  allow  no  one  to  abuse  him  by  word  or 
deed  in  my  presence,  for  no  white  man  has  dared  to  do 
or  sacrifice  more  for  his  brother  than  these  colored  peo 
ple  who  have  fed  and  protected  us." 

On  the  7th  fifteen  of  the  recaptured  officers  were 
brought  in,  some  of  them  barefooted,  and  with  what 
little  clothing  they  had  on  in  rags.  They  said,  however, 
that  they  fared  better  outside  than  inside  the  prison. 
On  the  1 2th  three  hundred  boxes  of  clothing  and  eata 
bles,  and  fifty  letters  which  had  contained  money,  were 
received.  Many  of  the  boxes  had  been  robbed,  but  not 
quite  as  many  as  before.  Captain  Manley,  of  our  mess, 
received  a  small  box  of  underclothing,  which  was  a  great 
help  to  him,  and  incidentally  to  us.  All  the  money°had 
been  taken  out  of  the  letters  by  the  Confederates.  ~ Cap 
tain  Manley  should  have  received  ten  dollars  in  gold,  by 


NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [November, 

express,  but  instead  of  .delivering  it  to  him,  the  authori 
ties  gave  him  an  order  on  the  sutler  for  three  hundred 
and  thirty-three  dollars  worth  of  goods.  The  reader 
may  inquire  why  the  rebels  did  not  deliver  the  money. 
The  answer  is  that  there  may  have  been  more  than  one 
reason,  but  the  most  potent  one  was  the  fear  of  our  brib 
ing  the  guards.  On  the  isth  I  find  recorded  in  my  diary 
our  great  sufferings  from  cold  and  hunger,  ice  forming 
in  the  water-buckets  half  an  inch  thick,  and  no  rations, 
not  even  our  usual  standby  of  corn-meal  and  sorghum, 
being  issued  on  that  day  or  the  next.  Besides,  there 
was  our  common  enemy,  the  body  lice,  the  fighting  of 
which  took  most  of  our  leisure  time.  Job's  comforters 
and  ground  itch  were  also  added.  Could  Job  of  old  have 
suffered  more? 

On  the  i6th  of  November  our  mess  commenced  build 
ing  a  log  house,  10  x  7  x  4  feet,  with  a  pitched  roof 
covered  with  long  split-pine  shingles.  We  had  on  the 
outside  at  one  end  a  fire-place,  made  of  sticks  and  mud. 
There  was  a  small  hole  in  the  opposite  end  through  which 
we  crawled  in  and  out.  Our  strength  would  not  allow 
us  to  work  long  at  a  time,  and,  moreover,  we  could  have 
the  ax  only  by  turns,  one  ax  doing  duty  for  a  hundred 
men.  We  finished  the  building,  and  moved  in  Decem 
ber  4.  What  luxury  and  comfort  that  poor  substitute  for 
a  house  afforded  us  in  our  weakened  condition,  none  but 
those  who  have  had  a  similar  experience  will  ever  know. 
On  the  I5th  of  November  we  received  news  of  Lincoln's 
election,  and  there  was  great  rejoicing  throughout  the 
camp.  Our  pitiable  condition  was  for  a  moment  forgot 
ten,  while  cheer  after  cheer  went  up  for  "President 
Abraham  Lincoln!"  "Old  Glory  !  "and  "Our  cause! 
Not  so,  however,  with  our  rebel  guard.  They  looked 


1864.]  PRISONERS-OF-IVAR.  597 

sullen  and  mad,  and  our  rations  after  this  were  smaller 
and  poorer,  if  possible,  than  before. 

December  3,  Lieutenant  Turbayne  of  the  Sixty-sixth 
New  York  was  shot  dead  by  one  of  the  guards  without 
the  least  provocation.  He  was  walking  along  the  prom 
enade,  with  an  ax  on  his  shoulder,  towards  the  west  side 
of  the  camp  where  we  all  went  for  wood,  when  one  of  the 
guard  in  his  rear  ordered  him  to  halt.  The  lieutenant 
halted  at  once,  and  turned  around.  As  he  turned,  the 
guard,  a  Mr.  Williams  of  Newbury  Court-house,  South 
Carolina,  shot  him,  the  ball  passing  through  his  lungs. 
The  lieutenant  staggered,  fell,  and  died  in  a  few  min 
utes.  Many  others  as  well  as  myself  saw  the  shooting, 
but  not  only  did  Major  Griswold,  the  rebel  commandant, 
refuse  to  investigate  the  matter,  but  after  the  murderer 
had  been  relieved  by  the  officer  of  the  day,  he  sent  him 
back  the  same  afternoon  to  do  duty  on  the  front  line. 
The  next  morning  he  came  into  camp  surrounded  by  a 
strong  body-guard,  for  fear  that  our  officers  would  do 
violence  to  him.  This  kind  of  shooting  occurred  all  too 
often,  and  no  one  knew  whose  life  was  next  to  be  sacri 
ficed  to  satisfy  the  greed  of  bloodthirsty  devils.  The 
next  day,  December  4,  orders  were  issued  that  there 
would  be  no  more  going  outside  after  wood,  either  under 
guard  or  with  a  parole  of  honor,  and  what  little  wood 
we  had  after  that  was  brought  in  by  colored  men. 

As  stated  above,  no  meat  of  any  kind  was  issued,  but 
there  were  two  occasions  on  which  a  small  quantity  was 
received  without  rebel  orders.  Once  was  when  two  ol 
their  fine  bloodhounds,  used  in  chasing  negroes  and 
Yankees,  happened  to  run  in  between  the  guard  into 
camp.  Although  the  most  diligent  search  was  made  by 
the  rebel  authorities,  with  cursing  and  threats,  neither 


598  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [December, 

hide,  hair,  nor  bones  of  those  dogs  could  ever  be  found. 
The  other  time  was  soon  after  this  occurrence,  when 
an  old,  wild,  black  hog,  in  first-class  running  order, 
crossed  the  guard  and  that  fatal  dead  line  into  camp. 
What  a  rush  a  hundred  or  more  famished  men  made 
after  that  wild  hog  !  Former  or  present  military  rank 
had  no  distinction,  and  in  less  time  than  it  takes  to 
write  it  that  "porker"  had  been  cut  into  small  pieces 
and  was  being  cooked.  Every  part,  even  to  the  entrails, 
was  cleaned  and  utilized  for  food.  The  following  was 
written  and  posted  up  by  our  "  wandering  poet  of  New 
Hampshire  :  " 

"  The  black  hog  was  seen  when  running  through  camp, 
Each  man  forgetting  starvation  and  cramp. 
Grunts  of  the  hog  and  its  running  were  vain, 
Never  will  he  be  on  that  camp-ground  again/' 

On  the  pth  of  December  some  two  hundred  left  for 
exchange,  including  seventy-five  special  exchanges,  the 
rest  being  sick  or  wounded.  Among  the  number  who 
left  was  one  of  our  messmates,  Capt.  J.  A.  Manley,  also 
Capt.  S.  F.  Murray,  Second  United  States  sharpshooters 
of  New  Hampshire,  and  Col.  H.  R.  Stoughton,  Second 
United  States  sharpshooters  of  Vermont.  By  the  latter 
I  sent  letters  home  which  I  am  sure  would  not  have  gone 
through  the  rebel  mail  inspection,  but  would  have  been 
retained  as  contraband  of  war. 

The  1 2th  of  December,  a  cold,  cheerless  day,  we 
received  orders  to  pack,  and  were  marched  to  the  yard 
of  the  insane  asylum,  which  was  situated  on  the  east 
side  of  the  city  of  Columbia,  South  Carolina.  The  yard 
was  on  the  east  side  of  the  asylum,  and  was  surrounded 
on  three  sides  by  a  brick  wall  twelve  feet  high,  inclos 
ing  about  one  acre.  A  staging  was  built  on  the  outside 


1864.]  PRISONERS-OF-IVAR.  599 

of  this  wall,  where  the  guard  were  posted.  There  was 
no  means  of  escape  here  except  by  tunnelling,  which 
was  tried  without  success.  The  mad-house,  used  by  us 
as  a  hospital,  was  the  only  building  inside  this  yard, 
except  a  mere  shell  in  the  north-east  corner,  twenty-four 
feet  square  and  divided  into  two  rooms.  This  was  a 
model  from  which  others  were  to  have  been  built,  to 
accommodate  all  the  prisoners,  but  the  lack  of  lumber 
prevented.  We  lived  there  two  months  in  the  coldest 
weather,  not  one  third  of  the  men  having  quarters. 
Some  old  tents  and  pieces  of  tents  were  brought  in, 
which  served  to  cover  the  mouth  of  a  hole  made  in  the 
ground.  It  was  my  fortune,  with  seventeen  other  com 
rades,  to  assist  in  completing  a  building,  constructed 
after  the  plan  of  the  above-mentioned  model,  in  the 
north-east  corner  of  the  yard.  With  a  double  fire-place 
in  the  centre,  built  of  sticks  and  mud,  we  could  have 
been  quite  comfortable  had  we  had  plenty  of  fuel.  One 
small  stick  of  pine  wood,  about  the  length  and  size  of 
your  arm,  was  a  day's  allowance  per  man,  and  some  days 
no  wood  was  issued.  The  only  luxury  that  we  enjoyed 
here  was  plenty  of  good,  pure  water,  from  a  hydrant 
located  within  the  yard. 

On  the  same  day  that  we  came  here,  December  12, 
we  were  joined  by  seventy-five  more  officers,  who  had 
been  confined  in  the  city  jail.  Lieut.  George  H.  Drew, 
of  Company  A  of  my  own  regiment,  who  was  captured 
at  the  Petersburg  mine  explosion,  was  among  the  num 
ber,  also  Lieut,  and  Adjt.  J.  H.  Gallagher  of  the  Fourth 
Vermont,  an  old  acquaintance  and  an  employe  of  my 
father  before  the  war.  As  wre  now  recall  it,  it  seems 
tame  to  say  that  our  meeting  and  handshake  were 
cordial. 


600  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [January, 

Our  rations  here  were  the  same  as  at  Camp  Sorghum. 
They  consisted  of  corn-meal  and  a  small  quantity  of  sor 
ghum — no  meat  of  any  kind.  On  the  23d  of  December 
Colonel  Shedd  of  the  Thirteenth  Illinois,  at  that  time  our 
senior  officer,  petitioned  our  rebel  commander,  Colonel 
Griswold,  to  provide  something  better  for  a  general 
Christmas  dinner.  Of  course  the  request  was  not 
granted.  Our  mess,  however,  was  more  fortunate  than 
many,  for,  having  a  little  Confederate  money  left,  we 
decided  to  celebrate  Christmas  with  a  good  dinner  of 
beefsteak,  sweet  potatoes,  onions,  and  butter.  As  we 
could  not  obtain  United  States  coffee,  we  provided  in  its 
stead  coffee  made  from  burnt  corn-meal,  the  flavor  of 
which  you  will  never  appreciate  until  you  try  it.  The  ex 
pense  account  in  my  diary  states  that  the  dinner  for  our 
mess  of  five  cost  twenty-five  dollars,  Confederate  money. 
Lieut.  G.  W.  Chandler  of  the  First  West  Virginia  cav 
alry,  and  Maj.  J.  E.  Pratt  of  the  Fourth  Vermont,  suc 
ceeded  in  obtaining  two  violins,  a  bass  viol,  and  a  flute, 
and  with  this  band  of  music  in  the  afternoon  and  evening 
we  had  a  Christmas  greeting  never  to  be  forgotten  by 
those  present. 

I  had  been  suffering  much  from  chills  and  fever,  and 
on  January  2,  1865,  was  taken  to  the  mad-house  used 
then  as  a  hospital  for  sick  and  disabled  Union  officers. 
I  was  fortunate  in  securing  a  bunk  next  to  the  wall  at 
one  end  of  the  second  story,  where  I  could  put  my  feet 
against  the  chimney,  in  which  there  was  a  fire-place. 
A  fire  in  this  furnished  the  only  warmth  in  the  room,  and 
much  of  the  time  we  were  without  fuel.  There  were 
about  twenty-five  patients  on  that  floor,  and  as  many 
more  in  the  room  below.  The  surgeon  in  charge  was 
Dr.  A.  R.  Rouzie,  from  Tappahannock,  Essex  county, 


SERGT.  CHARLES  H.  LITTLE,  Co.  K. 


W  a*.  I 


i  •'  , 

SERGT.  JOHN  R.  HALL,  Co.  K. 


I 


SERGT.  JOHN  R.  RUNNALS,  Co.  E. 


T  865.]  PX  ISO  NEKS-  OF  -  WA  R.  60 1 

Virginia,  a  rank  rebel,  but  very  much  of  a  gentleman 
and  having  a  kindly  nature.  He  had  very  little  medi 
cine  except  boneset,  made  from  thoroughwort,  but  he 
made  up  for  this  lack  by  telling  stones,  at  which  he  was 
an  adept.  He  spent  an  hour  or  more  each  day  in  this 
occupation,  and  left  us  with  more  smiles  than  tears,  and 
with  our  aches  and  pains  for  the  time  forgotten.  Either 
I  was  a  special  favorite,  or  the  doctor  did  not  want  it 
known  that  they  had  any  whiskey ;  at  any  rate,  I 
accepted  his  own  proposition  that  I  needed  the  stimulant, 
and  he  brought  me  up  a  small  vial  on  condition  that  I 
use  it  unknown  to  the  other  patients.  This  resulted  in 
my  taking  several  small  drinks  all  by  myself  each  day. 
I  have  always  kept  a  warm  spot  in  my  heart  for  the 
doctor,  and  it  has  been  my  privilege  and  pleasure  to  cor 
respond  with  him  since  the  war. 

On  January  4  we  were  paid  for  the  extra  sorghum 
molasses  which  we  had  not  drawn.  The  amount  was 
between  four  and  five  thousand  dollars  at  rebel  prices, 
and  we  received  beef  and  potatoes  for  the  same,  causing 
many  who  had  almost  given  up  the  hope  of  living  to 
see  home  and  friends  again,  to  take  on  a  new  lease  of 
life.  On  the  7th  rebel  troops  passed  through  the  city. 
We  were  informed  by  the  guard  and  by  colored  men 
that  they  were  Kenshaw's  brigade,  Longstreet's  corps, 
Lee's  army,  and  were  on  their  way  to  re-enforce  General 
Hardee. 

Sundays  passed  about  the  same  as  is  usual  in  military 
camp  life,  but  without  the  morning  inspection  and  after 
noon  dress  parade.  This  day  was  always  more  quiet 
than  others,  and  there  were  preaching  services  by  the 
chaplains,  or  by  some  of  the  city  ministers,  when  the 
weather  would  permit.  A  Rev.  Mr.  Dow,  Episcopa- 


602  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [February, 

lian,  of  Columbia,  preached  to  us  on  the  i5th.  On  the 
i7th  I  paid  thirty  dollars  in  rebel  money  for  having  my 
shoes  repaired.  On  the  i8th  we  learned  that  Fort  Fisher 
had  been  captured  by  our  forces — news  which  caused 
great  rejoicing.  On  the  25th,  Lieutenant  Henderson, 
whose  bunk  was  near  my  own.  died  of  typhoid  pneumo 
nia,  of  which  there  were  many  cases. 

On  the  26th  gold  in  New  York  was  quoted  at  1874, 
and  on  the  same  date  I  gave  a  bill  of  exchange  to  the 
rebel  sutler,  John  A.  Bowen,  for  fifty  dollars,  made  pay 
able  at  the  Northfield  (Vt.)  bank  by  my  brother, 
Stephen  P.  Wilcox.  My  memorandum  does  not  give 
the  amount  of  Confederate  money  received,  but  I  think 
it  was  five  dollars  for  one  gold  dollar,  a  total  of  two  hun 
dred  and  fifty  dollars.  On  the  28th  it  was  reported 
that  one  dollar  in  gold,  in  Richmond,  brought  twenty  in 
Confederate  money.  On  the  7th  of  February  the  rebel 
General  Winder  died.  He  was  born  and  lived  in  Balti 
more,  Md.,  before  the  war,  and  was  at  one  time  our 
commander — a  most  cruel  one.  We  put  on  no  badges  of 
mourning  on  that  occasion. 

February  13,  at  six  o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  we  re 
ceived  orders  to  be  ready  to  leave  the  next  day.  The 
next  afternoon  600  were  marched  to  the  depot  to  take 
the  train.  A  large  number  of  these,  however,  the  guard 
had  to  return,  on  account  of  the  crowd  of  citizens  who 
were  anxious  to  leave  before  General  Sherman's  troops 
captured  the  city,  and  who  took  possession  of  the  cars  in 
defiance  of  the  military  force  at  hand.  The  next  after 
noon  (the  I5th)  those  of  us  in  the  hospital  were  marched 
to  the  depot.  Before  leaving,  several  officers  were 
helped  up  through  a  small  opening  in  the  ceiling  into  the 
attic  of  the  hospital,  where  they  secreted  themselves,  and 


1 865.]  PRISONERS-OF-WAR.  603 

where  they  intended  to  remain  until  General  Sherman, 
whose  cavalry  was  reported  to  be  only  fifteen  miles 
away,  captured  the  city.  Whether  or  not  they  suc 
ceeded  in  their  venture,  I  never  learned. 

The  wildest  excitement  prevailed,  and  when  we  finally 
reached  the  depot,  it  seemed  to  us  that  the  whole  popula 
tion  of  the  city,  men,  women,  and  children,  was  there, 
each  loaded  with  gripsacks  and  bundles,  and  making  a 
mad  rush  for  the  long  train  of  cars.  It  was  an  amusing 
sight  to  us,  and  feeling  sure  that  it  "was  no  false  alarm, 
we  were  more  willing  to  remain  than  to  board  the  train. 
But  more  troops  had  arrived,  and  we  were  soon  marched 
to  the  cars  through  the  crowd,  and  started  for  Charlotte, 
N.  C.  We  had  little  to  eat,  and  were  packed  with  less 
care  than  would  be  used  in  shipping  dumb  beasts,  but  the 
thought  of  the  possibility  of  Sherman's  cavalry  cutting 
the  railroad  before  we  should  reach  North  Carolina 
caused  us  to  almost  forget  our  sufferings.  We  had  pro 
ceeded  about  forty  miles  when  the  train  ran  into  a  large 
herd  of  cattle  which  was  being  driven  northward  to 
escape  Sherman's  cavalry.  The  engine  was  thrown 
from  the  track,  and  the  colored  fireman  and  two  cows 
were  killed.  Our  guard  dressed  the  beef,  giving  us 
what  they  could  not  use.  We  did  not  start  again  until 
the  next  afternoon  at  two  o'clock.  Four  long,  heavily- 
loaded  trains  were  waiting  behind  us,  and  a  more  panic- 
stricken  crowd  of  soldiers  and  citizens  you  could  not 
imagine.  Not  so  with  us  ;  we  had  not  been  so  happy 
for  months.  It  was  a  regular  picnic,  with  a  free  ride 
towards  liberty  and  4 'God's  country."  We  could  not 
refrain  from  bantering  our  guards  on  the  situation. 

We  arrived  at  Charlotte  that  evening,  remaining  on 
the  cars  until  the  next  morning,  when  we  were  marched 


604  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [February, 

to  a  camp  about  a  half  mile  west  of  the  city.  Our  rebel 
commander,  Major  Griswold,  received  a  despatch  that 
morning,  stating  that  we  were  all  to  be  exchanged  at 
once.  There  were  many,  however,  who  took  no  stock 
in  that  kind  of  news,  saying  it  was  the  same  old  gag  to 
keep  us  quiet  and  to  hold  us  easily  with  their  small  force 
of  old  men  and  boys,  and  before  we  reached  camp  over 
one  hundred  made  their  escape  by  running  the  guard. 
My  long-time  bed-fellow,  Lieutenant  Duren,  and  Lieu 
tenant  Drew  of  my  own  regiment,  were  among  the  num 
ber.  Many  shots  were  fired  by  the  guard,  but  my  diary 
records  but  one  hit— Lieut.  T.  E.  Evans  was  shot  in  the 
leg. 

We  received  a  large  mail  that  morning.  Letters  from 
relatives  and  friends  were  hailed  with  greater  pleasure 
than  words  can  express.  Nothing  could  stimulate  the 
sick  and  discouraged  more  than  these  communications 
from  home,  although  some  of  them  had  been  months  on 
the  way.  A  letter  received  that  morning  from  my  mother 
was  dated  November  22,  1864. 

The  weather  was  cold.  Snow-banks  could  be  seen  on 
the  higher  ground,  and  we  walked  all  that  night  to  keep 
warm.  The  next  day  (February  19)  Lieutenants  Duren 
and  Drew,  with  many  others,  were  brought  in,  having 
been  recaptured  at  a  bridge  about  twelve  miles  from  the 
city.  Capt.  W.  D.  Lucas,  of  the  Fifth  New  York  cav 
alry,  gave  me  one  hundred  and  seventy-six  dollars  in 
Confederate  bills,  and  my  record  also  states  that  I  gave 
him  my  note  for  thirteen  dollars,  payable  in  gold.  This 
could  not  last  long,  but  furnished  our  mess  with  meat  and 
vegetables  for  a  few  days. 

At  three  o'clock  that  afternoon  three  hundred  of  us 
were  put  on  the  cars,  and  arrived  at  Greensboro,  N.  C., 


1865.]  PRISONERS-OF-WAR.  605 

at  five  o'clock  the  next  morning.  Here  we  saw  the  first 
installment  of  our  paroled  enlisted  men,  about  one  thou 
sand  passing  us  on  flat-bottomed  cars.  Our  guards  pro 
tested  and  threatened,  but  they  could  not  prevent  the 
exchange  of  cheer  after  cheer  for  "Our  flag!"  "Our 
cause  !"  and  "President  Lincoln!"  We  arrived,  about 
noon  of  the  2ist,  at  Morrisville,  where  we  remained  in 
the  cars  until  two  o'clock  the  next  morning.  While 
waiting  here  some  one  managed  to  obtain  some  apple 
brandy,  or  "  apple-jack,"  as  it  was  better  known  in  war 
times.  Stimulants  of  any  kind  had  long  been  strangers 
to  the  most  ardent  imbiber,  and  we  were  not,  physically, 
in  a  condition  to  stand  up  against  that  kind  of  fluid.  It 
was  wonderful  how  little  of  that  "jack"  it  took  to  make 
a  man  appear  to  feel  as  though  he  owned  the  whole  earth 
and  all  there  was  in  it. 

We  arrived  at  Raleigh,  N.  C.,  that  same  forenoon, 
remaining  on  the  cars  until  the  next  day,  the  23d,  when 
we  signed  our  paroles.  On  the  24th,  while  en  route  to 
a  camp  three  miles  out  from  the  city,  the  engine  ran  off 
the  track.  We  were  on  platform  cars,  and  the  track  ran 
along  a  high  bank,  but  fortunately  the  train  was  running 
slowly  and  stopped  before  going  off'  the  bank,  though 
several  of  our  number  were  injured  by  jumping  oft'. 
Lieutenant  McCutcheon,  of  our  mess,  sprained  his  ankle 
badly.  His  misfortune,  however,  proved  to  be  more  of  a 
blessing  than  otherwise,  both  to  him  and  the  mess,  for, 
while  the  rest  had  to  march  nearly  two  miles  to  camp, 
we  were  allowed  to  lodge  in  a  cabin  occupied  by  a  col 
ored  family.  With  us,  also,  were  Lieutenants  Jones  and 
Belcher,  sick  with  fever.  How  ready  the  poor  colored 
people  were  to  give  everything  they  had  to  make  us 
comfortable,  none  but  those  who  shared  the  hospitality  of 


606  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE. 


[February, 


the  race  under  like  circumstances  can  ever  know  !  They 
were  always  willing  and  glad  to  make  any  sacrifice  for 
the  Union  soldiers  and  their  cause. 

I  went  to  the  city  one  day  after  medicine  for  the  sick 
ones,  in  company  with  the  rebel  lieutenant  of  the  guard, 
Lieutenant  Hull,  and  was  fortunate  in  obtaining  my  first 
good  square  meal  of  fried  ham  and  eggs,  sweet  potatoes, 
rolls,  and  pure  Yankee  coffee.  That  dinner  will  never 
be  forgotten. 

On  the  25th,   all  of  us  except  the  two  sick   officers, 
Jones  and  Belcher,  went  to  camp  in   company  with  the 
rebel  surgeon,  Dr.  Rouzie.     On  the  27th  we  were  again 
on  the  cars,   arriving  at  Goldsboro  the   same  afternoon, 
where  we  camped.     Near  by  was  a  much  larger  detach 
ment  of  our  enlisted  men,  who  also  had  but  just  arrived. 
Soon  after  our  arrival  the   citizens  brought  in   a  large 
quantity  of  provisions,  many  of  which  were  turned  over 
to  the  starved  and  emaciated  comrades  from   Anderson- 
ville  and  other  prisons.     All  the  blankets  that  could  pos 
sibly  be  spared  were  disposed  of  in  a  like  manner.     The 
citizens  of  Goldsboro  may  not  have  all  been  Union  peo 
ple,  but  their  sympathies  were  so  touched  by  the  awful 
condition   of  the  human  beings  whom  they  saw  in  that 
camp  that  they  rendered  such  aid  as  they  could  while  we 
were  there.     On  the  28th  we  signed  another  parole,  the 
first  having  been  incorrect,  or,  as  the  rebels  put  it,  not 
binding  enough.     Possibly  it  was  not,  but  the  meeting  of 
Grant  and  Lee  at  Appomattox,  only  a  few  weeks  after 
wards,  resulted  in  their  not  having  occasion  to  enforce 
that  or  any  other  parole. 

Time  will  never  efface  our  thoughts  of  home  as  we 
boarded  the  train  for  Wilmington,  at  five  o'clock  in  the 
afternoon  of  February  28.  We  arrived  at  Rockv  Point 


1865.]  f  PKISONERS-OF-WAK.  607 

station  the  next  morning.  At  ten  o'clock  we  passed  by 
twos  between  a  file  of  Union  and  Confederate  soldiers, 
and  were  counted.  What  a  pleasure  it  was  to  look  upon 
the  blue  uniform  and  equipments  of  our  own  soldiers  once 
more  !  Assistant  Commissioner  Hatch  of  the  Confed 
erate  States  of  America,  General  Abbott  of  the  United 
States  of  America,  and  Colonel  Rawlins  of  the  Seventh 
regiment,  New  Hampshire  volunteers,  were  present  and 
superintended  the  counting. 

After  marching  about  two  miles,  we  were  halted,  and 
partook  of  our  first  regular  army  rations  of  hard  bread, 
boiled  beef,  and  coffee,  which  I  assure  you  never  had 
tasted  as  good  before.  Resuming  our  march,  we  soon 
reached  a  large  camp  of  Federal  soldiers  just  outside 
the  city.  We  caught  the  first  view  of  this  as  we  emerged 
from  the  woods  about  five  hundred  yards  distant,  and  it 
is  impossible  to  describe  our  enthusiasm  as  our  eyes  once 
more  gazed  on  the  Stars  and  Stripes  floating  in  the 
breeze.  Many  had  not  looked  on  the  flag  for  more  than 
two  years.  Not  a  dry  eye  could  be  seen,  and  not  a  few 
sat  down  in  their  tracks  and,  like  children,  had  a  good 
cry.  It  was  one  of  the  most  touching  scenes  of  the  war. 
The  encampment  was  of  colored  troops,  and  they  had 
erected  a  large  arch  of  evergreen  and  United  States  flags 
for  us  to  pass  under  as  we  entered  their  camp.  Many  of 
the  darkies  came  out  on  the  road  to  meet  us,  and  taking 
the  most  feeble  on  their  backs,  carried  them  through  the 
camp  to  the  city.  I  regret  that  I  cannot  give  the  name 
or  number  of  this  regiment. 

One  hundred  of  us  were  quartered  in  a  church  that 
night.  The  pews  were  cushioned,  blankets  had  been 
issued  to  us,  and  no  one  was  kept  awake  by  others 
marching  around  to  keep  warm,  or  to  see  how  long  they 


608  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [March, 

could  sit  up,  smoke,  and  tell  stories.  I  doubt  if  more 
fervent  silent  prayers  ever  went  up  in  that  church  before 
or  since.  That  same  afternoon  we  met  Sergt.  William 
H.  Hartwell  of  Company  I,  George  H.  Brown  of  Com 
pany  F,  and  several  other  comrades  of  our  regiment,  who 
were  quartered  in  a  big  cotton  warehouse  with  a  large 
number  of  other  prisoners  who  had  just  arrived  from 
Florence  and  Andersonville.  From  these  I  learned  the 
sad  fate  of  many  comrades  who  had  died  from  starvation 
and  exposure,  and  who  had  been  captured  on  the  same 
day  as  myself  at  Spottsylvania  Court-house.  I  very  much 
regret  that  I  did  not  record  the  facts  and  data  in  regard 
to  them,  but  in  the  hurry  of  the  moment,  coupled  with 
the  pleasure  of  seeing  those  living,  I  failed  to  do  so. 

The  next  day,  which  was  March  2,  600  of  us  went  on 
board  the  steam  propeller  Eutrope.  While  waiting  on 
the  wharf,  we  saw  going  aboard  another  steamer  the 
enlisted  men  from  Florence  and  Andersonville.  A  very 
large  number  of  them  had  to  be  carried  on  stretchers; 
others  walked,  supported  by  two  colored  soldiers. 
Agents  of  the  United  States  Sanitary  commission  were 
there,  stationed  on  either  side  with  barrels  of  milk  punch, 
each  one  as  he  passed  receiving  a  cupful.  The  terrible 
scenes  of  suffering  humanity  that  we  witnessed  on  that 
occasion  will  ever  linger  in  memory.  The  piteous 
moans,  meant  to  express  thanks  and  thoughts  of  home 
and  friends,  uttered  by  those  poor  comrades  were  enough 
to  break  the  stoutest  heart.  All  were  half  naked,  and 
what  clothing  they  had  on  was  in  rags,  and  filthy  from 
dirt,  vermin,  and  their  own  excrement.  They  were  mere 
skeletons,  covered  by  a  thin  skin  which  was  pierced  with 
running  sores  alive  with  maggots.  Their  faces  were 
black  with  smoke  and  exposure  incident  to  camp  life  in 


HENRY  O.  SARGENT,  Co.  E.  LIEUT.  JOHN  C.  SAMPSON,  Co.  E. 


V    ; 


EDWIN  F.  FOSTER,  Co.  E.  ALBERT  H.  DAVIS,  Co.  E. 


1865.]  PRISONERS-OF-WAR.  609 

a  tropical  climate,  and  altogether  they  were  changed 
beyond  recognition  by  their  nearest  of  kin. 

We  asked  ourselves  then,  as  we  do  now,  Is  it  possible 
that  a  civilized  and  Christian  people  could  allow  such 
torture  of  human  flesh  and  blood,  and  commit  such  a  sin 
against  God  and  man,  for  the  malevolent  purpose  of  per 
petuating  negro  slavery?  Thirty  years  have  passed  and 
gone  since  the  war,  and  we  long  ago  forgave  our  then 
mortal  enemies,  but  we  believe  that  our  posterity  and 
coming  generations  should  know  something  of  what  suf 
fering,  starvation,  and  torture  it  cost  to  overthrow  slavery 
and  secession.  Some  may  accuse  us  of  "  flaunting  the 
bloody  shirt,"  but  if  the  telling  or  writing  of  these  his 
torical  facts  is  unpatriotic,  then  those  who  took  part  in 
that  great  war  for  the  Union  are  not,  and  never  have 
been,  patriots. 

That  afternoon  we  steamed  down  the  river,  and  anch 
ored  for  the  night  opposite  Fort  Fisher.  Going  over  the 
bar  next  morning  at  high  tide,  we  were  soon  out  at  sea. 
The  voyage  around  Cape  Hatteras  was  rough.  Nearly 
all  were  seasick,  and  the  accommodations  for  that  or  any 
other  illness  were  not  adequate  for  the  number  on  board. 
Fortunately  Lieutenant  Duren  and  myself  were  among 
the  well  ones  this  time,  and  helped  care  for  others. 
Delayed  by  storm  and  fog,  we  did  not  reach  Annapolis, 
Md.,  until  Sunday,  March  5,  at  noon.  We  marched 
through  the  streets  just  as  the  residents  of  the  city  were 
returning  from  church  service. 

The  news  of  our  arrival  soon  spread,  and  we  shall 
never  forget  that  crowd  of  men,  women,  and  children 
who  gathered  around  to  greet  us.  Barefooted,  ragged, 
hatless  though  we  were,  none  ever  received  a  more 
cordial  welcome.  We  reported  at  once  to  Captain  Davis 

XXXIX 


6  10  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [May, 

of  the  Thirtieth  Massachusetts,  commanding  College 
Green  hospital.  At  that  hospital  we  signed  our  pay-rolls 
and  applications  for  a  leave  of  absence,  then  reported  to 
Dr.  Vanderkeift,  the  surgeon  in  charge  of  the  hospital. 
The  experience  of  the  first  night  in  that  hospital  was  a 
novel  one.  We  tried  to  sleep  on  a  soft  cot  between  clean 
white  sheets,  but  finally  had  to  spread  blankets  on  the 
hard  pine  floor  in  order  to  obtain  a  night's  rest.  The 
next  day,  March  6,  we  were  given  two  months  pay  by 
Major  Wilson,  he  being  the  first  United  States  paymaster 
I  had  seen  since  Maj.  Henry  W.  Scoville  had  paid  off 
our  regiment  at  Cumberland  Gap,  Kentucky,  in  March, 


I  reported  at  Annapolis  at  the  expiration  of  my  leave, 
•with  the  intention  and  expectation  of  rejoining  my 
regiment  ;  but  in  the  mean  time  Generals  Lee  and 
Johnston  had  surrendered,  the  war  was  over,  and  the  war 
department  at  Washington  had  issued  General  Order 
No.  82,  discharging  all  prisoners-of-war.  It  would 
have  been  a  great  pleasure  to  me  to  have  rejoined  my 
regiment  and  to  have  returned  to  New  Hampshire  with 
it,  but  under  the  above  order  we  were  obliged  to  accept 
our  discharge  from  the  United  States  service  on  the  i5th 
day  of  May,  1865.  It  was  my  fortune  and  pleasure, 
however,  to  witness  soon  after  in  Washington  the  review 
and  parade  of  that  grand  old  army  of  veterans  who  had 
won  the  victory  and  saved  the  nation.  It  was  also  my 
privilege,  while  in  Washington  settling  up  my  accounts 
with  the  United  States  government,  to  obtain  a  card  of 
admittance  to  the  trial  of  Mrs.  Surratt  and  her  fellow- 
conspirators  in  the  assassination  of  President  Lincoln. 

The  greatest  of  civil  wars,  ancient  or  modern,  has 
passed  into  history.  We  do  not  forget  its  terrible  cruel- 


1865.]  PRISONERS-OF-WAR.  6ll 

ties,  nor  the  death  and  destruction  wrought  by  those  who 
would  have  destroyed  the  nation  ;  but  we  forgive.  In 
the  words  of  that  great  commander  of  the  Union  army, 
Gen.  Ulysses  S.  Grant,  "  Let  us  have  peace  ;  "  and  may 
this  continue  until  this  nation  shall  stand  as  a  monument 
for  all  other  nations  to  gaze  upon  with  wonder  and 
admiration. 

The  reader  cannot  imagine  the  welcome  home  that 
we  received  from  our  family  and  friends,  and  none  but 
those  who  had  the  same  experience  can  realize  the  great 
change  from  the  life  we  had  been  living. 


612 


NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE. 


[May, 


LIST  OF  PRISONERS  CAPTURED  MAY  12,  1864,  NINTH 
NEW  HAMPSHIRE  VOLUNTEERS,  SECOND  BRIGADE, 
SECOND  DIVISION,  NINTH  ARMY  CORPS. 


NAMES. 

Sergeants. 

Corporals. 

Privates. 

Co.  -A 

E.  W.  Archer   .... 

j 

Wounded. 

•  i 

A.  McKusick     . 

i 

Wounded. 

" 

J.  L.  Archer      .... 

i 

Died  Sept.  i. 

4  4 

L   Myers 

j 

it 

Pat  Reynolds     .... 

i 

11 

John  McCoy      .... 

i 

Co.  B 

A.  Paul  Home  .... 

i 

Wounded. 

Co.  C 

O.  Hutchinson        .      .      . 

i 

Wounded. 

44 

B.  C.  Buswell   .... 

i 

4< 

S.  Allen  

i 

Died  July. 

" 

T.  P.  Conrey     .... 

i 

Died  September. 

11 

S.  S.  Simes        .... 

i 

Died  July. 

Co.  D 

P.  McDonald     .... 

i 

Wounded. 

« 

S.  M.  Piersons 

i 

Wounded. 

i« 

G.  A.  Ginnis     .... 

i 

,  < 

L    Mitchel 

i 

Took  oath. 

» 

M.  F.  Phelps     .... 

i 

Died  September. 

Co    F 

F  O    Rilev 

i 

\^(j  .  j_- 

Charles  S.  Stevens 

i 

t  4 

E.  Bragg      

i 

.' 

Isaac  Wooster  .... 

I 

b< 

Sin°"le 

i 

Co.  F 

Lieut.  Chas.  W.  Wilcox  . 

4  4 

George  Brown  .... 

i 

Wounded. 

4   I 

T.  W.  Emerson     .      .      . 

i. 

t< 

O.  Flanders       .... 

i 

Died  Sept.  i. 

" 

George  H.  Brown        .     . 

i 

TO       fr 

H  .Pa^e 

i 

Took  oath. 

v^U  •   V.J 

Co.H 

C.  B.  Hussey    .... 

i 

Wounded. 

i  i 

Peter  Dirrin       .... 

i 

Wounded. 

«« 

O.  B.  Warren    .... 

i 

44 

A.  Davis       

i 

4  4 

A.  W.  Hart  well      .      .      . 

T 

i864.j 


PRISONERS -OF-  WAR. 


61 


LIST  OF  PRISONERS  CAPTURED  MAY  12,  1864,  NINTH 
NEW  HAMPSHIRE  VOLUNTEERS,  SECOND  BRIGADE, 
SECOND  DIVISION,  NINTH  ARMY  CORPS. 


NAMES. 

Sergeants. 

Corporals. 

Privates. 

Co.H 

C.  W.  Morse     .... 

i 

44 

A.  W.  Pearl      .... 

i 

" 

H.  H.  Moulton       .      .      . 

i 

Co.  K 

<  i. 

Hall    
P.  A.  Smith      .... 

i 

i 

Wounded  severely. 
Wounded. 

" 

A.  S.  Brown      .... 

i 

Wounded. 

" 

S.  C.  Chisley    .... 

i 

Wounded. 

44 

A.  R.  Davis      .... 

i 

" 

A.  A.  Young     .... 

i 

44 

D.  Lenox     

i 

•  « 

H.  P.  Kingsbury    . 

i 

" 

William  Smith  .... 

i 

Deserter. 

" 

Alex.  Thompson    .      .      . 

i 

" 

John  Jones   

i 

Co.  L 

Thomas  Murphy     .      . 

i 

Wounded. 

«« 

B.  Robertson     .... 

I 

Wounded. 

44 

William  F.  White  .      .      . 

i 

" 

J.  S.  Pewtown  .... 

i 

" 

William  F.  Miles   .      .     . 

i 

«• 

J.  Smith       

i 

4  I 

M.  Whalen  . 

j 

*4 

A.  Meek       

i 

" 

J.  Thompson     .... 

i 

" 

G.  Nollett     

i 

4< 

G.  Mendall 

j 

" 

Whitenhouser    .... 

i 

«< 

G.  Hedrick  .... 

i 

4  4 

William  Troutman       .     . 

i 

«• 

G.  Bennewith    .... 

i 

" 

Charles  Huddle      .     .     . 

i 

Ninth  Regiment  proper    . 

3 

13 

30 

Company  L  

2 

i 

13 

Total 

I  A 

At 

3ne  Lieutenant. 

1  T- 

4j 

CHAPTER    XVIII. 

PRISONERS-OF-WAR    IN    SALISBURY,    ANDERSONVILLE, 
FLORENCE,  AND    BELLE    ISLE. 


SUFFERINGS    AT    SALISBURY. 
By  Sergt.    W.   A.  Me  Gar  reft. 

I  was  captured,  with  a  number  of  others  of  the  Ninth 
New  Hampshire,  on  the  3Oth  of  September,  1864,  at  the 
Battle  of  the  South  Side  Railroad,  near  Petersburg,  Va. 
I  was  on  the  skirmish  line,  and  we  were  ordered  to 
advance  to  the  road  and  hold  the  stone  wall  on  the 
opposite  side.  We  reached  the  road,  and  just  then  a 
line  of  rebels  stood  up  on  the  other  side  of  the  wall  and 
fired  into  our  line  of  battle  in  our  rear.  Our  skirmishers, 
on  seeing  this  line,  dropped,  and  the  rebel  bullets  went 
whistling  over  our  heads.  The  rebels  then  advanced 
against  our  line  of  battle,  and  captured  all  of  the  skir 
mishers  and  a  part  of  the  men  in  the  line,  the  most  of 
whom  were  wounded.  A  second  line  of  rebels  was 
concealed  back  of  this  wall,  who  immediately  took 
charge  of  us,  robbing  us  of  our  knapsacks,  haversacks, 
shoes,  and  whatever  suited  their  fancy.  They  charged 
five  dollars  for  a  canteen  of  water,  and  we  were  left  in 
an  exposed  position  until  after  the  firing  had  ceased, 
during  which  time  three  of  our  men  were  severely 
wounded  and  one  of  the  guards  was  shot  from  our 
batteries. 


1864.]  PRISONERS-OF-WAR.  615 

We  were  then  taken  to  Petersburg  jail,  and  had  our 
names  recorded,  together  with  our  rank,  regiment,  and 
corps.  Then  we  were  sent  to  Richmond  and  put  in 
Libby  prison.  Here  we  stayed  a  week,  and  lived  on 
pea  soup.  Then  we  were  sent  to  Pemberton  prison, 
where  we  were  searched  and  all  our  money,  and  our 
overcoats  as  well,  was  taken  away  from  us.  We  were 
then  taken  to  Castle  Thunder,  where  we  were  robbed 
again  of  everything  that  was  of  any  value  to  our  captors. 
From  there  we  were  sent  to  Danville,  then  to  Goldsboro, 
Raleigh,  and  lastly  to  Salisbury,  N.  C.,  and  here  is 
where  our  real  sufferings  commenced.  In  October  and 
the  first  half  of  November  there  were  over  twenty  thous 
and  prisoners-of-war  corralled  in  the  narrow  limits  of 
Salisbury  prison,  which  could  not  reasonably  accommo 
date  over  six  hundred.  It  was  converted  into  a  scene  of 
suffering  and  death  which  no  pen  can  adequately 
describe,  for  every  hour  and  day  we  were  surrounded 
by  horrors  which  burned  into  our  memories  and  will 
never  be  forgotten. 

The  main  building  in  Salisbury  was  the  Confederate 
state  penitentiary,  one  hundred  feet  by  forty,  and 
four  stories  in  height.  This  and  several  smaller 
buildings  were  all  filled  with  Confederate  convicts, 
Yankee  deserters,  and  southern  Unionists,  but  the  yard 
of  four  acres  where  the  Union  prisoners  lived  in  holes  in 
the  ground,  was  the  filthiest,  most  vermin-infested  place 
in  the  world.  I  shared  one  of  these  holes  with  Sergt. 
William  H.  Hartwell  of  our  regiment,  and  many  a  weary 
hour  was  whiled  away  listening  to  him  reciting  Poe's 
"  Raven,"  and  "  Bingen  on  the  Rhine."  We  were  with 
out  coats  and  barefooted  through  that  long  and  terrible 
winter.  Every  morning  the  dead-carts  would  come  in 


6 1 6  NINTH  NE  W  HA  M PS  HIRE. 


[November, 


and  carry  out  from  one  to  five  loads  of  men  who  had 
starved  to  death  or  died  of  exposure.  All  night  long 
the  screaming  and  ravings  of  many  who  had  gone  crazy 
from  suffering  could  be  heard.  They  would  run  through 
the  yard  yelling  like  fiends,  and  sometimes  were  shot 
down  like  dogs  by  the  guards.  It  was  thus  that  nine  of 
our  comrades  died  in  that  fearful  place.  Their  names 
were, — Sergt.  Maj.  Franklin  H.  Foster,  Company  A; 
John  G.  Welch,  Company  A;  Joseph  Quinn,  Company 
A;  Asa  A.  McKusick,  Company  A;  John  D.  Neller, 
Company  A;  Samuel  D.  Pearson,  Company  C;  Fred 
erick  Morse,  Company  H  ;  John  Clark,  Company  H  ; 
William  Thompson,  Company  A. 

I  want  to  speak  here  in  particular  of  Sergt.  Maj. 
Franklin  H.  Foster.  His  life  in  prison  was  one  of 
extreme  and  long  suffering.  He  loved  his  flag  and 
country  to  the  very  last,  and  often  told  me  that  if  it 
were  God's  will  he  should  die  there  he  was  willing  to  go. 
Every  sign  of  flesh  had  left  his  body.  Only  bones,  with 
a  dry,  withered  skin  covering  them,  were  left.  His  eyes 
were  sunken,  and  every  tooth  in  his  mouth  was  visible. 
His  fingers  were  long  and  ghastly.  A  shirt  and  a  pair  of 
ragged  trousers  were  all  that  covered  him.  He  was  the 
worst  sight  in  the  whole  prison,  and  every  day  was  sub 
jected  to  the  jeers  and  insults  of  the  rebel  guard,  who 
called  him  "Uncle  Sam's  patented  Yank,"  and  asked 
him  to  take  off  his  skin  and  show  what  kind  of  a  man 
he  was. 

The  night  he  died  I  went  to  see  him,  and  found  him 
on  his  knees  with  his  eyes  shut  and  his  long,  bony  arms 
extended  at  full  length,  praying  for  his  loved  ones  at 
home,  his  starry  flag  he  so  dearly  loved,  his  regiment, 
and  his  comrades  in  prison.  Men  dying  on  all  sides 


1864.]  PRISONERS-OF-WAR.  617 


of  him  made  their  last  effort  in  life  to  turn  and  hear 
his  pathetic  appeal. 

I  stood  bareheaded  through  that  dreadful  scene  until 
his  peace  was  made  with  heaven,  and  then  he  opened 
his  eyes;  and  oh,  that  long,  sad,  pleading  look  when 
he  handed  me  his  few  effects  to  be  given  to  his  father  ! 
He  grasped  my  hand,  and  bade  me  a  last  farewell 
until  eternity.  My  heart  sinks  now  when  I  recall  that 
saddest  night  of  all.  Said  he,  "Tell  my  father  I  died 
for  my  country."  I  told  his  father  that  he  starved  to 
death,  when  he  came  to  see  me,  but  I  could  not  tell 
him  all. 

On  the  26th  of  November  the  prisoners  made  a  break 
for  liberty,  and  the  scene  was  indescribable.  At  once 
every  musket  in  the  garrison  was  turned  upon  them,  and 
two  field-pieces  opened  with  grape  and  canister.  Six 
teen  prisoners  were  killed  and  sixty-three  wounded,  all 
of  whom  died ;  and  after  this  horrible  massacre  cold 
blooded  murders  were  very  frequent.  Any  guard  stand 
ing  upon  the  fence,  at  any  hour  of  the  day  or  night,  could 
deliberately  raise  his  musket  and  shoot  into  any  group 
of  prisoners,  black  or  white,  without  the  slightest  rebuke 
from  the  authorities. 

About  the  middle  of  December  quite  a  squad  of  pris 
oners  escaped,  and  among  them  were  Charles  Thurston, 
of  the  Sixth  New  Hampshire,  and  Albert  Richardson, 
correspondent  for  the  New  York  Tribune,  both  of  whom 
were  successful  in  reaching  our  lines  at  Knoxville, 
Tenn.  Some  of  the  others  were  hunted  down  by  blood 
hounds  and  brought  back  to  Salisbury  terribly  torn  by 
the  dogs,  and  all  of  them  died  from  their  wounds. 

From  this  time  until  we  were  released  the  snow  was 
from  one  to  six  inches  deep,  and  the  prisoners  were 


6 1 8  NINTH  NE  W  HAMPSHIRE.  [February,. 

barefooted  and  almost  naked,  some  of  them  living  in 
holes  in  the  ground,  and  some  without  any  shelter  of  any 
kind.  The  yard  was  covered  every  morning  with  dead 
men,  who  were  thrown  into  the  dead-carts  like  cord- 
wood  and  carried  out.  And  still  new  lots  of  prisoners 
were  admitted  almost  every  day. 

Rebel  officers  came  into  the  yard  with  a  large  guard, 
nearly  every  day  in  November  and  December,  and 
offered  a  nice,  large  loaf  of  bread  to  all  able-bodied 
Yanks  who  would  enlist  into  the  Confederate  service,, 
and  a  large  number  of  our  recruits  and  bounty-jumpers 
accepted  their  offer.  But  not  in  one  single  instance  did 
a  loyal  patriot  of  the  Ninth  ever  leave  his  comrades  for 
anything  they  could  offer. 

On  the  22d  day  of  February  it  was  snowing  hard,  and 
the  yard  was  filled  with  slush  and  filth,  when  we  were 
counted  off  and  paroled.  Barefooted  as  we  were,  we 
marched  that  day  and  the  next  to  Goldsboro,  N.  C.,. 
where  we  were  put  into  cattle  cars  that  were  at  least  two- 
inches  deep  with  filth,  and  sent  to  Wilmington,  N.  C.,. 
where  we  were  passed  into  our  own  lines.  Here  a  large 
American  flag  had  been  stretched  across  the  road,  and 
every  prisoner  cried  as  only  a  true  patriot  can,  after 
suffering  what  we  did  in  Salisbury  prison,  when  they 
saw  the  dear  old  flag  at  last.  The  Union  soldiers 
immediately  emptied  their  haversacks  for  us,  and  gave 
us  their  blankets,  and  even  offered  us  their  shoes  ;  but 
shoes  were  of  no  use  to  us  then,  for  our  feet  were 
swollen  and  almost  ready  to  burst,  while  the  rest  of 
our  bodies  were  almost  skeletons.  When  we  reached 
Annapolis  I  weighed  ninety-^four  pounds,  against  one 
hundred  and  forty-eight  pounds  just  before  we  were 
captured. 


1865.]  PRISONERS-OF-WAR.  619* 

ANDERSONVILLE  AND  FLORENCE. 
By  Corp.  A.  P.  Home. 

It  is  well  I  remember  the  first  night  the  Ninth  New 
Hampshire  passed  in  the  Wilderness,  when  myself  and 
tent-mates,  of  Company  B,  were  lying  on  the  ground, 
listening  to  the  groans  and  cries  of  our  wounded  com 
rades  who  were  being  carried  to  the  rear.  And  we 
remarked,  one  to  the  other,  that  in  all  probability  it  was 
the  last  night -we  should  be  together ;  though  we  were 
happily  disappointed  in  this  respect,  as  none  of  us  were 
injured  the  next  day.  But  on  the  morning  of  the  i2th  of 
May  came  the  Battle  of  Spottsylvania,  and  this  history 
records  the  casualties  which  the  Ninth  New  Hampshire 
sustained  in  that  most  heroic  and  desperate  charge — the 
long  list  of  dead  and  wounded,  and  of  those  nineteenth 
century  martyrs  who  were  consigned  to  a  living  death  in 
the  prison-pens  of  the  South. 

I  was  among  the  number  taken  prisoners  at  the 
"  bloody  angle,"  and  on  passing  through  the  rebel 
breastworks,  what  a  sight  met  my  eyes  !  The  dead  and 
wounded  were  lying  in  the  mud  and  water,  so  many  of 
them  that  it  was  difficult  to  pass  along  without  stepping 
on  some  one,  showing  that  if  we  had  been  hit  hard,  they 
had  been  treated  to  a  dose  of  their  own  medicine. 

On  the  morning  of  May  14  we  were  started  on  our  way 
to  the  summer  resort  known  in  history  as  Anderson- 
ville — a  name  which  makes  me  shudder  to  think  of  after 
more  than  thirty  years  have  passed  away,  but  as  no 
tongue  or  pen  can  adequately  describe  its  horrors  I  shall 
not  make  the  attempt.  We  were  three  days  in  going 
fifteen  miles,  but  at  length  arrived  at  Gordonsville,  Va., 
both  tired  and  hungry,  as  we  had  received  but  one 


620  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [May, 

ration  in  the  three  days.  The  reason  we  were  so  long 
on  the  road  was  because  the  Union  cavalry  was  bother 
ing  our  guards,  and  every  little  while  the  scouts  would 
come  in  to  report.  We  would  be  halted  for  a  time,  then 
would  make  back  tracks,  and  advance  by  another  route. 

Arrived  at  Gordonsville,  we  were  searched  for  money, 
watches,  knives,  and  what  other  valuables  we  might 
chance  to  possess  ;  and  we  could  not  say  with  truth  that 
those  who  stole  our  purses  stole  trash,  for  it  did  leave  us 
very  •<  poor  indeed."  Then  we  were  packed  into  freight 
cars,  sixty  to  a  car,  like  sardines  in  a  box,  and  were 
started  on  our  way  to  Georgia.  After  passing  through 
Lynchburg,  Va.,  Charlotte,  N.  C.,  and  Augusta  and 
Macon,  Ga.,  we  arrived  at  Andersonville  on  the  morning 
of  May  25. 

Our  first  salutation  was  from  that  Dutch  pirate,  Captain 
Wirtz  :  "What  makes  you  all  huddle  up  together,  just 

like  so  many  d — d  old  women?  You  Yankee !  " 

he  shouted,  at  the  same  instant  drawing  his  pistol. 
"  Scatter  right  smart  into  line,  so  you  can  be  counted 
into  hundreds!"  After  having  been  parcelled  off  into 
squads,  some  one  of  our  number  was  put  in  charge  and 
we  were  marched  inside  the  stockade.  Andersonville 
prison.  What  horrors  it  recalls,  what  sighs  and  groans, 
what  prayers  and  tears  !  What  dying  out  of  hope,  what 
wasting  away  of  body  and  mind,  what  nights  of  darkness 
settling  down  on  human  souls  !  Its  doors  an  entrance 
to  a  living  charnel-house,  its  iron-barred  gates  but  the 
outlook  of  hell !  It  was  the  Inferno  of  the  slave  Con 
federacy,  and  well  might  have  had  written  over  its  portal, 
"All  hope  abandon,  ye  who  enter  here." 

What  would  the  reader  have  thought,  could  he  have 
looked  inside,  as  we  did,  and  seen  the  boys  in  blue 


CORP.  AUGUSTUS  P.  HORNE,  Co.  B. 


1 864.]  PRISONERS-  OF-  WA  R.  621 

strung  up  by  the  thumbs,  with  their  toes  just  touching 
the  ground,  to  make  them  reveal  some  plan  of  escape ; 
or  having  their  rations  denied  them  for  two  and  three  days 
at  a  time,  to  make  some  half-starved  and  weak-minded 
man  point  out  a  hidden  tunnel  for  a  loaf  of  bread?  The 
camp  was  alive  with  all  kinds  of  vermin, — what  wretched 
ness  ! — and  on  every  hand  were  men  without  clothing, 
dependent  on  rags  or  anything  that  would  serve  to  hide 
their  nakedness  and  protect  their  emaciated  and  sore- 
eaten  bodies  from  the  burning  sun.  In  those  days  we 
could  only  hope  that  somewhere  there  was  a  Gilead  filled 
with  healing  balm,  and  that  God's  rainbow  still  arched 
the  skies  of  calm. 

Still  the  weak  and  suffering,  maltreated  and  hunger-tor 
tured  men  lived  on,  refusing  with  scorn  the  inducements 
presented  to  tempt  them  to  take  the  oath  of  allegiance. 
They  were  offered  plenty  of  food  and  clothing  to  work 
as  shoemakers,  carpenters,  and  overseers  of  plantations  ; 
but  I  am  glad  to  say  that  only  a  very  few  ever  went  out 
in  that  way,  and  those  who  did  were  men  that  had 
enlisted  for  bounty,  and  had  no  real  interest  in  the  flag 
of  the  Union.  Inside  the  stockade,  our  ears  were 
greeted  with  cries  of  "Who'll  swap  a  hard-tack  for  a 
pint  of  rice  !  "  or  "An  ear  of  corn  for  a  pint  of  beans  !  " 
"A  bone  for  a  piece  of  corn-bread  ! "  like  hucksters  at  a 
county  fair  or  a  circus.  The  poor  fellows,  in  fact,  had 
lived  so  long  on  one  kind  of  rations,  at  Libby  and  other 
prisons,  that  anything  for  a  change  tasted  good  to  them. 

After  wandering  around  for  a  while,  looking  for  a 
place  to  camp,  I  finally  found  a  spot  just  large  enough 
to  lie  down  on,  near  the  south  gate.  Here  I  established 
my  "  quarters,"  and  held  them  until  the  grounds  were 
enlarged  on  the  farther  side  of  the  creek.  After  being 


'622  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [July 

enlarged  there  were  but  thirty-two  acres,  and  on  the  first 
day  of  July,  1864,  there  were  no  less  than  thirty  thous- 
.and  of  the  boys  in  blue  starving  and  dying  in  that  hell 
upon  earth  !  Four  out  of  the  thirty-two  acres  were  a 
swamp,  with  a  creek  running  through  it,  and  there  we 
got  our  water  to  wash  with  and  to  drink,  and  as  the 
work-house  and  camp  of  our  rebel  guard  lay  just  outside, 
they  had  the  privilege  of  bathing  in  it  and  watering  their 
horses  and  mules  before  we  got  it  to  drink. 

Morning  after  morning,  while  we  were  there,  we 
would  see  from  forty  to  fifty  dead  bodies  laid  out  side  by 
side  near  the  prison  gate, — men  who  had  died  all  alone 
in  the  darkness,  and  had  been  brought  by  their  comrades 
to  be  carried  out  by  the  carts  that  came  in  with  our 
rations.  They  were  piled  into  the  carts,  one  on  top  of 
another,  like  so  much  cordwood,  to  be  buried  in  long 
trenches,  heads  to  heels,  with  only  a  thin  covering  of 
mother  earth.  Such  was  the  sad  fate  of  fifteen  thousand 
brave  and  true-hearted  men,  who  suffered  and  died,  only 
to  be  buried  in  an  unknown  grave  !  What  a  burden  of 
sorrows,  disappointments,  hopes,  and  miseries  lies  em 
bodied  in  that  one  word,  unknown  !  Those  noble,  heroic 
souls,  dying  among  comparative  strangers,  had  lost  their 
names,  their  individual  histories.  Some  fond  wife,  moth 
er,  sister,  or  sweetheart  mourns  them,  or  vainly  waits 
for  their  coming.  Each  sound  of  footsteps  at  the  door 
causes  heart-throbs  of  expectancy?  but  no  more  in  life 
shall  they  behold  those  faces  which  once  gladdened  the 
household.  Sick,  and  in  prison,  they  lingered  and  died 
unknown  ! 

So  we  lived  on,  waiting  for  the  day  to  come  that  should 
open  wide  our  prison  door.  The  hollow  eyes  grew 
.bright  when  we  heard  the  boom  of  Sherman's  guns  at 


•i  864.]  PR1SOATERS-  OF-  WA  R.  623 

Atlanta,  and  some  one  would  say — "Boys,  they  are 
coming  to  set  us  free  !"  Then  the  wind  would  shift,  and 
perhaps  we  would  hear  nothing  for  several  days.  Some 
times  it  seemed  as  though  we 'could  hear  the  crack  of  the 
Springfield  rifles,  and  the  boys  would  go  so  wild  with  joy 
that  at  last  the  rebels  caused  poles  with  white  cloth  on 
the  top  to  be  placed  thirty-five  feet  from  the  "dead  line," 
and  no  gatherings  were  allowed  outside  of  these  for  fear 
we  would  break  through. 

We  had  all  sorts  of  men  inside  those  wooden  walls, 
from  the  preacher  of  the  Gospel  to  a  highway  robber  or 
murderer,  and  the  camp  got  so  permeated  with  crime  that 
we  had  to  organize  a  "  vigilance  committee,"  which  made 
short  work  of  those  suspected  of  desperate  crimes.  Fin 
ally  we  formed  a  gantlet,  and  with  the  permission  of  the 
rebel  commander  drove  quite  a  number  of  "suspects" 
outside.  On  searching  their  quarters,  dead  men  were 
found  buried  in  the  ground.  One  of  these  wretches  was 
convicted  and  hanged,  and  after  that  we  had  peace  and 
order.  We  had  a  police  court,  and  tried  and  punished 
our  prisoners  in  due  form.  A  man  convicted  of  stealing 
rations,  clothing,  or  anything  of  value  from  another,  was 
consigned  not  to  the  whipping-post  but  to  the  whipping- 
barrel.  The  offender  was  laid  across  the  barrel,  hands 
and  feet  were  secured  to  pegs  driven  into  the  ground, 
and  he  was  then  given  from  one  to  twenty  lashes  on  the 
bare  back,  which  was  usually  a  sure  cure. 

It  rained  almost  every  day  while  I  was  in  Anderson- 
ville,  either  a  storm  or  a  thunder-shower,  and  one  after 
noon  in  the  latter  part  of  July  we  had  the  most  terrific 
thunder-shower  I  ever  heard.  It  rained  so  hard  that  a 
part  of  the  stockade  was  washed  away,  but  the  Johnnies 
-"  got  a  move  on,"  and  quickly  established  a  heavy 


624  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE,  [September, 

guard.  But  even  if  it  did  not  bring  us  our  freedom,  the 
shower  was  a  blessing  in  one  respect — it  opened  for  our 
needs  "Providence  spring."  Before  it  came  all  the  place 
we  had  to  get  our  water  to  drink  was  from  the  creek  I 
have  already  spoken  of,  but  the  next  morning,  inside 
the  dead  line,  a  spring  of  pure,  cool  water  was  flowing 
out  of  the  sand.  Whether  it  was  the  hand  of  God,  as 
when  Moses  smote  the  rock  in  the  wilderness,  or  a  freak 
of  nature,  I  can  only  say,  like  Esek  Harden,  "God 
knows,  not  I ;"  but  the  spring  continued  to  flow  as  long 
as  I  remained. 

All  those  long,  weary  days  and  months  thousands  of 
prayers  went  up  to  God  from  inside  those  dreary  walls. 
Homesick  and  suffering,  sick  and  in  prison,  still  they 
prayed — boys  for  their  mothers,  husbands  for  their  wives 
and  children,  and  all  that  they  might  see  home  once 
more.  "Nearer,  my  God,  to  thee,"  "Just  as  I  am," 
"Home,  sweet  home,"  and  kindred  songs  rose  and  fell 
on  the  evening  breeze,  and  there  were  services  on  the 
Sabbath  and  prayer-meetings  during  the  week.  So  one 
can  see  that  we  were  not  all  bad,  in  spite  of  our  sur 
roundings. 

About  the  time  that  Sherman  was  breaking  through  at 
Atlanta,  the  news  came  that  we  were  to  be  exchanged, 
and  all  who  were  able  to  move  or  crawl  were  put  into 
freight  cars,  both  open  and  closed,  and  started  for  Sa 
vannah.  On  arriving  there  we  were  confined  in  the  jail 
yard,  along  with  the  black  and  white  men  who  had  been 
put  in  there  for  crimes ;  but  it  was  only  a  few  days 
before  we  were  again  loaded  into  the  cars.  This  time 
our  destination  was  Charleston,  S.  C.,  where  we  camped 
on  the  old  fair-grounds  for  about  two  weeks,  while  the 
rebels  were  trying  to  find  a  place  for  us.  By  night  we 


1864.]  PRISONERS-OF-WAR.  625 

watched  the  burning  fuses  from  the  big  guns,  and  some 
times  could  even  hear  the  whistling  of  the  shells  as  they 
flew  through  the  air. 

At  length  a  vacancy  was  found  at  Florence,  S.  C., 
ninety-six  miles  from  Charleston,  and  this  was  our  abid 
ing-place  until  January  i,  1865.  There  were  10,000  of 
us  at  Florence,  and  as  the  weather  was  getting  quite 
cold  we  had  to  burrow  in  the  ground  like  rabbits.  Hav 
ing  dug  as  deep  a  hole  as  we  could,  we  would  crouch  in 
it  during  the  long,  cold  nights,  with  no  blankets  or  cov 
ering  of  any  kind,  and  try  to  sleep.  So  the  time  wore 
away,  the  men  growing  weaker  and  weaker  and  dying 
faster  and  faster,  fading  and  falling  like  the  leaves  of 
autumn ;  but  the  day  came  at  last  when  we  started  for 
"God's  country."  We  were  sent  from  Florence  to  An 
napolis,  Md.,  and  on  arriving  there  were  given  a  bath 
and  the  first  clean  clothes  we  had  had  for  eight  months. 
At  the  time  I  was  taken  prisoner  I  weighed  one  hundred 
and  sixty-five  pounds,  but  at  Annapolis  tipped  the  scales 
at  ninety-six  ;  and  speaking  of  clothes,  you  should  see 
the  suit  I  wore  at  Florence — made  from  meal-bags,  the 
trousers  cut  out  with  a  knife  and  a  shirt  made  by  cutting 
slits  for  the  head  and  arms,  with  no  sleeves. 

The  night  before  we  left  Florence,  just  at  dark,  a  new 
batch  of  prisoners  was  put  inside  the  stockade.  One  of 
them  was  a  German  who  could  speak  but  little  English, 
and  he,  knowing  nothing  of  the  rules,  stepped  inside  the 
dead  line,  and  was  promptly  shot  down  by  one  of  the 
guards.  The  poor  fellow  lay  on  the  ground  all  night, 
and  we  listened  to  his  cries  for  help,  but  were  not  permit 
ted  to  do  anything  to  relieve  his  sufferings  ;  as  the  guard 
who  had  done  the  cruel  deed  would  not  let  us  remove 
him,  lest  he  lose  the  furlough  which  was  the  standing 

XL 


626  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [September, 

reward  for  the  putting  to  death  of  a  "  Yank."  Such  an 
incident  as  I  have  related  was  of  too  frequent  an  occur 
rence  to  excite  much  comment  among  us,  but  pages  on 
pages  might  be  filled  with  stories  of  the  deprivations  and 
sufferings  endured  by  northern  men  in  the  prison-pens  of 
the  South,  without  conveying  any  adequate  idea  of  the 
terrible  reality. 

CLOSE    TO    BELLE    ISLE. 
By  J.  Frank  Foster. 

We  all  remember  that  beautiful  day,  September  30, 
1864,  the  day  we  undertook  to  capture  the  Weldon  rail 
road.  We  charged  the  rebel  works,  and  were  driven 
back.  As  we  were  falling  back  Sergeant  Partridge,  of 
Company  I,  was  wounded,  and  as  I  was  near  by  I  took 
hold  of  him  to  give  him  a  lift,  and  while  doing  this  was 
stopped  by  an  officer  who  was  trying  to  rally  the  men. 
During  this  time  the  rebels  were  advancing,  and  the 
bullets  were  flying  nearer  than  was  comfortable. 

I  covered  myself  the  best  I  could  in  the  angle  of  a 
fence,  but  before  I  was  aware  of  it  the  rebels  were  upon 
us,  and  I  was  captured  with  a  lot  of  others.  Their  first 
salutation  was,  "Give  me  your  pocket-book,  you  Yankee 

!"      Another  rebel  took  my  new  hat  and 

put  his  old  one,  which  was  alive  with  vermin,  on  my 
head.  But  the  rebels  soon  fell  back  with  their  prisoners, 
for  they  were  glad  to  get  back  away  from  our  bullets. 

In  passing  the  buildings  on  the  Pegram  farm  a  comrade 
named  Gibson,  who  had  been  wounded,  called  to  me, 
and  I  left  the  lines  to  speak  to  him.  This  incident  un 
doubtedly  saved  my  life,  as  I  remained  with  the  wounded 
until  the  next  Sunday,  when  they  took  us  in  ambulances 


1 864.]  PRISONERS  -  OF-  WAR.  627 

and  carried  us  through  Petersburg,  across  the  river  to  a 
hospital.  All  this  time  nothing  had  been  done  for  the 
wounded,  except  what  I  did.  We  all  had  our  haversacks, 
so  we  were  not  hungry.  A  number  of  our  men  died  and 
were  immediately  stripped  of  their  clothing,  and  the  rebels 
put  it  on.  Next  day  they  took  us  on  flat  cars  to  Richmond, 
and  as  we  were  crossing  the  James  river  we  could  look 
down  upon  Belle  Isle  and  see  the  prisoners  there.  We 
then  expected  to  join  them,  but  on  arriving  in  Richmond 
those  who  could  not  walk  were  taken  in  ambulances  and 
carried  to  a  hospital,  and  the  rest  of  us  walked.  Those 
of  us  not  wounded  were  detailed  as  nurses. 

On  October  8  some  of  us  were  exchanged,  and  I  felt 
fortunate  to  be  among  the  number.  We  steamed  down 
the  river  by  Fort  Darling,  and  the  poor,  starved  com 
rades  felt  as  though  new  life  was  put  into  them,  but 
some  of  these  skeletons  never  reached  home  alive. 


CHAPTER  XIX. 
REGIMENTAL  HOSPITALS — THE  BRIGADE  BAND. 

The  regimental  hospitals  of  1862  and  1863  were  not 
the  most  cheerful  places  in  the  world  for  sick  soldiers 
who  longed  for  home  and  mother's  care,  and  who  were 
isolated  to  a  great  degree  from  their  comrades.  The 
experience  of  a  Ninth  New  Hampshire  man  in  one  of 
these  during  the  winter  of  1862-3,  is  told  as  follows  : 

"My  first  serious  sickness  commenced  in  December, 
1862,  and  kept  me  from  duty  till  the  last  of  March,  1863. 
The  hospital  of  the  Ninth  at  that  time  consisted  of  two 
hospital  tents,  pitched  with  their  rear  ends  near  each 
other,  a  large  mud  and  wood  chimney  running  up 
between  the  two,  from  which  a  fire-place  opened  into 
each.  Like  our  camp,  they  were  located  in  a  mud-hole, 
and  no  pains  were  taken  to  drain  off  the  ground,  though 
it  could  have  been  done  easily.  In  the  tents  the  mud 
was  very  deep,  and  upon  it  pine  boughs  were  spread, 
which  furnished  the  bed  of  the  patient;  the  bedding  was 
whatever  each  happened  to  have,  with  perhaps  an  extra 
hospital  blanket. 

* '  Four  of  my  comrades  put  me  on  a  blanket  and  carried 
me  to  the  hospital.  The  tent  was  found  to  be  crowded 
with  patients,  some  sick  with  fevers,  some  with  measles, 
— all  mixed  in  promiscuously.  They  made  room  for 
me  by  'thickening  up'  the  others.  I  spread  a  rubber 
blanket  on  the  boughs,  above  that  an  overcoat,  and  this 
formed  my  bed.  I  was  fortunate  in  having  two  blankets 


1863.]^  REGIMENTAL  HOSPITALS.  629 

to  spread  over  me,  having  brought  an  extra  one  from  the 
Fredericksburg  battle-field.  I  was  as  helpless  as  a  little 
infant  for  several  days;  was  obliged  to  call  upon  the 
nurse  to  turn  me  over  when  my  bones  ached  so  I  could 
stand  it  no  longer.  I  have  very  little  recollection  of 
what  occurred  the  first  three  or  four  days.  I  remember 
that  one  day  Taft  of  my  company  came  in  as  a  measles 
patient,  and  I  knew  just  enough  to  feel  pleased  that  he 
was  there  with  me. 

"  On  the  2d  of  January  our  box  came,- — the  one  which 
had  been  so  long  expected  from  Meriden.  Its  arrival 
just  then  was  most  opportune,  for  I  was  almost  destitute 
of  underclothes,  and  it  contained  some  nice  ones  for  me. 
I  can't  remember  much  about  it, — only  that  some  of  the 
Company  E  boys,  who  were  very  kind  to  me  all  the  way 
through,  brought  them  in,  took  off  those  which  I  had  on, 
and  put  on  some  clean  ones.  Those  taken  off  were 
washed  and  put  in  my  knapsack.  I  forgot  to  mention 
that  my  knapsack  was  my  pillow.  The  box  contained  a 
nice  pair  of  mittens,  also  a  knit  cap,  and  these  were  a 
great  comfort  during  my  long  sickness  in  those  cold  tents. 
Sometimes  the  fires  would  smoke  badly,  sometimes  go 
out  entirely,  for  there  was  only  green  pine  wood  to  burn. 

"After  a  few  days  a  bright  thought  struck  the  sur 
geons, — to  separate  the  fever  and  measles  patients.  So  I 
and  the  others  sick  with  fever  \vere  carried  into  the  other 
tent,  and  all  the  measly  ones  were  put  in  where  I  had 
been.  Much  of  the  time  the  only  food  brought  into  the 
hospital  was  army  hard-tack  and  coffee  or  tea.  The  first 
was  perfectly  nauseating  to  a  very  sick  man.  Those  of 
us  who  had  any  money  could  buy  apples  and  soda  crack 
ers  from  the  sutler,  and  get  the  apples  roasted  in  the 
ashes.  Occasionally  we  got  an  onion  or  potato.  Many 


630  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [January, 

of  the  men  were  almost  destitute  of  underclothing,  not 
having  a  change,  and  perhaps  they  would  lie  two  weeks 
in  the  same  clothing,  and  then  if  they  happened  to  die, 
as  most  of  them  did,  they  were  buried  in  the  same.  But 
I  had  it  afterwards  from  undoubted  authority  that  some 
of  those  in  charge  had  an  abundance  of  soft  bread,  sauce 
of  various  kinds,  etc.,  much  of  which  was  furnished  by 
the  Sanitary  and  Christian  commissions  ;  and  I  know  they 
wore  drawers  and  shirts  sent  to  the  hospital  by  these 
commissions  for  the  use  of  patients. 

"  The  nurses  were  generally  kind,  and  did  as  well  as 
they  could  with  their  means,  but  they  had  nothing  to  do 
with.  A  half-candle  was  allowed  for  both  tents  per 
night,  but  was  not  lighted  except  to  give  the  regular 
doses  of  quinine.  It  was  not  uncommon  for  a  patient  to 
die  in  the  night,  and  for  no  one  to  know  it  till  morning. 
Yet  it  has  been  claimed  that  there  were  plenty  of  can 
dles  among  the  surgeons,  and  that  they  often  had 
euchre  parties  in  their  tents  till  after  midnight.  We 
were,  moreover,  only  a  short  distance  from  Washing 
ton,  whence  all  kinds  of  supplies  might  have  been 
obtained  for  the  asking.  I  believe  that  some  of  the 

O 

patients  almost  starved  to  death  for  want  of  something 
palatable,  and  many  became  covered  with  vermin  for 
want  of  a  change  of  clothing. 

"After  I  had  been  for  some  time  in  the  hospital,  the 
beds  were  somewhat  improved  by  driving  down  little 
crotches  at  the  head  and  foot,  laying  some  sticks  from 
one  to  the  other,  and  covering  these  with  small  poles, 
which  were  spread  two  or  three  inches  thick  with 
boughs ;  or,  in  some  instances,  with  hay  mattresses, 
improvised  for  the  occasion. 

"  I  remember  a  man  from   Company  D  came  in  the 


1863.]  REGIMENTAL   HOSPITALS.  631 

hospital  one  cold,  stormy  night  (he  had  been  there 
before,  but  had  been  sent  back  to  duty  before  fully 
recovered),  having  just  then  come  from  the  picket  line. 
They  gave  him  a  place  next  to  me.  This  was  before 
our  beds  were  raised  on  poles,  and  when  I  awoke  next 
morning  one  of  his  hands  lay  uncovered  near  my  face. 
As  it  looked  cold  I  thought  I  would  put  it  back  under 
his  blanket,  but  on  touching  it,  I  found  the  body  cold 
and  stiff  in  death.  He  had  died  there  in  the  cold  and 
darkness,  and  no  one  knew  it.  Presently  the  nurse  dis 
covered  it,  and  a  little  while  after,  when  the  surgeon 
came  in  to  look  us  over  and  order  new  doses  of  quinine, 
he  said,  as  he  saw  the  body,  '  By  G — d,  is  that  man 
dead  !  '  I  do  n't  know  whether  any  other  funeral  sermon 
was  preached  or  not.  I  believe  they  called  the  disease 
with  which  many  died,  '  pneumonia.'  I  noticed  that  as 
soon  as  the  victims  became  '  flighty '  they  sank  right 
away.  I  used  to  watch  myself,  and  try  to  ascertain 
whether  I  was  in  my  right  mind. 

"  One  day  a  corporal  of  Company  A  was  brought  in 
and  placed  beside  me.  It  seemed  as  if  some  one  were 
always  dying  beside  me,  so  that  a  new  one  was  placed 
near  me  almost  every  day.  This  corporal  had  been  on 
duty  with  me  at  Willcox's  head-quarters.  At  first  he 
was  not  very  sick,  and  we  talked  a  little  as  I  felt  able. 
He  told  me  about  his  wife  and  little  girl,  and  seemed  to 
think  about  them  almost  all  the  time  ;  said  his  wife  was 
a  Christian,  and  that  he  desired  to  be.  I  advised  and 
encouraged  him  as  well  as  I  knew  how.  He  frequently 
prayed  for  himself  and  family.  In  a  few  days  he  began 
to  get  crazyrand  his  mind  was  on  home  all  the  time. 
He  would  call  for  his  wife,  then  would  jump  from  his 
hard  bed,  and  sometimes  act  very  wild.  One  stormy 


632  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [January, 

night  he  started  up,  crying  for  his  wife,  and  made  for 
the  tent  door.  The  nurse  caught  him  just  as  he  was 
going  out,  got  him  back  on  his  pole  bed  (which  seemed 
to  me  like  putting  him  on  a  rack),  and  strapped  him 
down.  He  now  failed  rapidly,  but  became  very  trouble 
some  to  me,  as  he  was  most  of  the  time  out  of  his  head. 
He  would  attempt  to  pull  off  my  blankets,  and  as  I  had 
no  strength  to  hold  them,  I  would  yell  out  to  the  nurse, 
who  would  come  to  my  assistance.  Soon  they  moved 
me  onto  another  bed. 

"  The  corporal  continued  to  wear  himself  out  by  thrash 
ing  around,  and  they  were  frequently  obliged  to  strap 
him  down.  One  morning,  after  a  terrible  night  in  which 
he  had  completely  exhausted  his  strength,  I  saw  by  his 
groaning  and  the  rattle  in  his  throat  that  it  was  nearly 
over  with  him.  I  shall  never  forget  how  dreadfully  he 
looked,  as  in  his  restlessness  his  head  would  drop  fre 
quently  over  the  side  of  his  narrow,  pole  bedstead,  while 
his  eyes  glared  wildly  about,  and  his  long,  matted,  and 
dishevelled  hair  made  him  the  very  picture  of  a  wild 
maniac  breathing  his  last.  At  length  he  seemed  calmer, 
and  appeared  to  be  hunting  for  something. 

"  I  called  the  nurse,  who  looked  in  his  pockets  and 
found  in  one  of  the  inner  ones  an  envelope  containing 
some  pictures.  They  were  of  a  nice  looking  lady  and  a 
beautiful  little  girl,  and  the  nurse  asked  the  corporal  if 
those  were  what  he  was  searching  for.  The  poor  fellow 
was  too  far  gone  to  speak,  but  he  took  the  pictures  in  his 
hand,  the  wildness  left  his  eyes,  he  gazed  on  them  with  a 
pleasant  smile,  and  thus  passed  away,  holding  them 
tightly  in  his  hand.  About  a  year  after  I.  wrote  to  his 
wife  an  account  of  his  death,  or  rather  of  his  very  last 
moments,  omitting  everything  which  would  be  shocking 


1863.]  REGIMENTAL    HOSPITALS.  633 

for  her  to  know,  for  which  I  received  a  letter  overflowing 
with  thankful  expressions. 

"  I  have  said  that  the  nurses  in  the  hospital  were  effi 
cient  and  kind.  There  was  one  old  fellow  from  Com 
pany  A,  an  Englishman,  who  usually  had  charge  part 
of  the  night,  and  who  never  could  remember  one  man's 
medicine  from  another.  The  last  two  weeks  I  was  there, 
every  evening  after  the  surgeon  went  out  he  would  say 
to  me,  '  Say,  do  you  remember  how  is  this?  I  gits  the 
midicine  all  mixed  up  in  me  mind.'  As  I  had  nothing 
else  to  think  of,  and  there  were  precious  few  kinds  of 
medicines  administered,  I  usually  took  pains  to  notice 
what  the  doctor  said,  and  after  telling  the  old  nurse 
about  three  times  over,  he  would  usually  get  it  through 
his  head. 

"  I  met  with  one  great  misfortune  here  which  I  could 
never  account  for.  I  lost  my  pocket-book,  and  with  it  all 
my  money,  about  seven  dollars.  It  had  been  in  a  pocket 
of  my  trousers.  I  could  never  think  that  any  of  the  nurses 
or  doctors  took  it,  and  yet  it  must  have  been  stolen.  The 
boys  of  my  company  and  two  or  three  of  the  nurses  very 
kindly  made  it  up  to  me,  and  more  too.  Tracy,  Pulsifer, 
Bragg,  George,  and  many  others  were  always  very  kind 
to  me,  and  but  for  them  I  could  not  have  been  washed 
for  three  or  four  weeks,  while  lying  there  with  all  my 
clothing  on. 

"  My  mother  and  sisters  often  inquired  about  my  com 
forts, — if  I  was  supplied  with  clean  bed-linen,  etc.  I 
always  preferred  for  them  to  remain  in  blissful  ignorance 
of  my  true  situation.  As  soon  as  I  could  write  legibly, 
I  used  to  scrawl  a  few  lines  with  a  pencil  almost  every 
day,  telling  them  that  I  was  gaining,  that  the  nurses 
were  kind  and  did  everything  they  could  for  me,  etc.  I 


634  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [January. 

verily  believe  my  mother  would  have  worried  herself  to 
death  had  she  known  of  my  situation. 

"At  the  time  Burnside  attempted  his  great  move  and 
got  stuck  in  the  mud,  there  was  an  order  to  send  the 
sick  to  Aquia  Creek.  The  night  before  we  were  to 
leave,  there  came  a  cold,  driving  storm  of  snow  and  rain, 
and  the  ambulances  arrived  for  us  before  daylight,  while 
it  was  still  storming.  I  was  not  able  to  sit  up,  but  was 
carried  to  an  ambulance  and  packed  in  with  some  ten  or 
a  dozen  others.  Many  of  us  were  not  strong  enough  to  sit 
up  alone,  but  we  were  packed  so  closely  that  we  sup 
ported  each  other,  and  could  not  fall  over.  It  had 
stormed  into  the  ambulance,  and  the  whole  situation  was 
as  cold  and  dismal  and  uncomfortable  as  could  well  be 
imagined.  We  were  about  a  mile  and  a  half  from  the 
railroad  station,  and  the  road  was  simply  a  succession  of 
slough-holes  and  mud-pits,  varied  by  a  plentiful  sprink 
ling  of  logs  and  stumps.  It  seemed  as  though  I  had 
never  suffered  such  pains  as  while  being  pitched  and 
rolled  and  thrashed  about  on  that  drive,  unable  as  I  was 
to  brace  myself  at  all. 

4<  Arriving  at  the  station,  we  were  placed  in  freight  cars, 
on  some  wet  hay  which  had  lain  out  all  the  night  before 
in  a  storm.  After  shivering  here  for  four  or  five  hours, 
an  order  was  received  that  the  hospitals  at  Aquia  Creek 
were  not  ready  to  be  occupied  and  that  the  patients  must 
not  come.  We  were  all  repacked  into  the  ambulances 
and  driven  back  to  camp  over  the  same  bone-breaking  road 
by  which  we  had  come.  We  arrived  about  sundown, 
only  to  find  that  our  hospital  tents  had  been  thoroughly 
cleaned  out,  so  that  there  was  not  even  a  pine  bough  bed 
to  lie  on.  Of  course  there  was  a  good  deal  of  swearing 
by  the  surgeons,  of  growling  by  the  men  detailed  to 


1863.]  REGIMENTAL   HOSPITALS.  635 

bVing  more  boughs  for  our  beds  to  keep  us  out  of  the 
mud  for  the  night,  and  of  patient  waiting  by  us  poor 
'  sick  devils,'  who  were  the  innocent  cause  of  all  this 
inconvenience  to  others. 

"In  about  two  weeks  there  came  another  order  to  send 
away  the  sick,  but  as  I  had  then  got  so  that  I  could 
stand  by  having  a  man  get  close  behind  me  and  support 
me  under  both  arms,  the  surgeons  thought  I  was  about 
ready  for  duty  and  did  not  send  me.  I  had  now  been  in 
the  hospital  nearly  four  weeks,  and  the  doctor  said  he 
thought  that  was  about  as  long  as  I  was  entitled  to  stay, 
and  that  I  had  better  go  back  to  my  company  and  give 
the  hospital  room  to  others.  I  would  gladly  have  gone 
if  I  had  had  a  tent  in  the  company,  but  having  come  to 
the  hospital  from  head-quarters,  and  having  no  tent,  I  dis 
liked  to  crowd  in  upon  the  other  boys  where  I  knew  I 
could  only  be  a  burden. 

"January  26,  1863,  I  sent  down  to  my  ever  true  friend, 
Tracy,  and  told  him  how  matters  stood.  Presently  he 
came  up  with  another  man,  picked  up  my  things,  and  I 
waddled  down  to  their  tent,  one  of  them  holding  me  up 
on  either  side.  There  were  in  the  tent  Burnham,  Tracy, 
and  Charley  Duncan,  the  latter  just  recovering  from 
measles.  It  seemed  like  going  out  of  a  tomb  when  I  left 
the  old  hospital  tent,  and  I  think  I  was  a  fair  representa 
tive  of  a  corpse.  The  above  named  comrades  had  a  lit 
tle  double  shelter  tent,  stockaded  about  ten  inches  at  the 
bottom,  with  a  small  fire-place  at  one  end.  At  this  they 
took  turns  cooking  their  meat,  and  in  the  coldest  days 
we  also  took  turns  at  warming  ourselves.  I  was  unable 
to  do  anything,  even  to  get  out  of  the  tent,  and  they 
with  almost  no  conveniences  were  obliged  to  wait  on  me. 
February  i  was  a  pleasant  day,  I  was  able  to  crawl  out 


636  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [February, 

of  the  '  kennel,'  and  leaning  on  Tracy  to  walk  about 
camp  a  little,  but  everything  looked  so  unnatural  and 
bewildering  that  I  was  glad  to  get  back  and  lie  down. 

"About  February  6  the  Ninth  corps  was  ordered  to 
Newport  News,  and  again  the  sick,  or  those  not  able  to 
do  duty,  were  ordered  to  Washington.  Our  surgeons 
had  omitted  my  name  in  making  out  the  list,  though  I 
was  still  unable  to  walk  without  help.  Nevertheless,  I 
packed  my  knapsack,  and  the  boys  helped  me  along  to 
the  hospital  tents  at  the  place  from  which  they  were 
sending  the  sick.  The  ambulances  were  soon  to  come 
back  for  their  last  load.  I  looked  into  the  old  hospital 
tent  which  was  still  standing.  There  were  one  or  two 
dead  men  there  as  usual, — those  who  had  died  the  night 
previous.  The  father  of  one  of  them  had  just  arrived  that 
morning,  and  had  put  on  his  dead  son  some  clean  clothes 
and  on  his  feet  a  nice  pair  of  slippers.  The  body  looked 
comfortable,  and  the  dead  soldier  seemed  more  fortunate 
than  some  of  the  neglected  wretches  waiting  to  be  trans 
ported  alive. 

"  The  ambulances  soon  returned,  and  the  rest  of  us  were 
placed  aboard.  As  we  drove  along  the  break-neck  road 
over  which  we  had  been  driven  twice  before  to  the  sta 
tion,  and  had  left  that  old  camp-ground  and  those  '  dead- 
houses  '  called  hospitals,  and  were  passing  the  long 
rows  of  new-made  graves  where  so  many  of  our  com 
rades  had  been  buried,  I  felt  a  kind  of  insipid  pleasure, 
for  I  was  too  weak  to  be  enthusiastic  over  anything. 
Those  loathsome  scenes  were  growing  more  distant, 
and  if  any  of  the  rest  of  us  should  die  presently  we  would 
be  buried  somewhere  else  than  in  that  detested  place. 
Poor  Kempton,  however,  of  my  company,  died  in  an 
ambulance  on  his  way  to  the  station.  They  took  his 


1863.]  REGIMENTAL   HOSPITALS.  637 

body  back  to  camp,  and  the  boys  furnished  the  best  sub 
stitute  they  could  for  a  coffin,  which  was  done  by  nailing 
some  barrel  staves  and  bits  of  hard-tack  boxes  to  some 
poles ;  and  thus  they  performed  their  last  duty  on  Staf 
ford  Heights  by  interring  one  of  our  number  under  its 
cursed  soil. 

"  February  7  we  were  loaded  into  freight  cars  and 
conveyed  to  Aquia  Creek,  where  we  arrived  about  sun 
down.  Taft  and  Charlie  Duncan  were  recovering  from 
measles  and  were  quite  strong  compared  with  myself,  so 
they  carried  my  knapsack  and  helped  me  besides.  At 
Aquia  Creek  we  remained  on  the  wharf  some  time,  and 
I  got  very  cold,  but  many  much  sicker  than  I  were  in 
the  same  condition.  We  were  at  length  taken  on  a  sort 
of  tug  or  ferry-boat  and  conveyed  to  an  old  transport, 
the  George  Weems,  lying  a  little  way  from  shore.  There 
was  on  this  one  large  room,  like  a  cabin,  where  there 
was  a  fire,  but  this  was  occupied  by  those  on  stretchers, 
so  that  the  great  majority  of  the  patients  slept  on  the 
open  boat,  between  the  deck  and  hurricane  deck,  with 
out  a  fire. 

"Taft  discovered  a  place  where  a  man  could  be 
'  tucked  away  '  over  the  boiler,  and  where  it  would  be 
warm.  He  helped  me  to  get  into  it,  and  I  slept  warmly 
and  sweetly  till  morning,  in  spite  of  the  aching  of  my 
abscess. 

"  The  sick  were  all  aboard  the  next  morning,  and  the 
steamer  moved  up  the  river  to  Washington,  where  we 
arrived  in  the  night.  The  day  was  quite  pleasant,  and 
we  enjoyed  sitting  on  deck  in  the  sun.  I  saw,  lying  on 
a  stretcher,  a  sick  boy,  apparently  not  more  than  eight 
een  years  old,  very  much  emaciated,  and  looking  as  if 
he  were  'just  about  gone.'  A  second  glance  showed  me 


638  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [February, 

that  it  was  a  boy  who  two  or  three  weeks  before  had 
lain  beside  me  in  the  hospital — at  that  time  much  stronger 
than  I  was.  Sitting  beside  him  was  a  man  in  citizen's 
clothes,  who  seemed  to  be  his  father.  I  remarked  to  him 
that  I  had  lain  beside  this  boy  in  the  hospital.  4  Did  you 
know  his  brother? '  said  he.  I  told  him  I  had  frequently 
seen  the  brother  come  into  the  hospital  to  bring  little  dain 
ties  to  this  one,  read  his  letters  to  him,  wash  him,  etc. 
'  Well,'  said  the  old  man,  «  he  was  afterwards  taken  sick, 
and  I  now  have  him  along  in  a  coffin.'  Before  we 
reached  Washington  that  night,  the  sick  one  was  a 
corpse,  and  the  old  man  started  for  home  with  both  his 
sons  in  coffins. 

"  I  afterwards  learned  that  the  shock  proved  too  much 
for  the  mother  of  the  boys,  who  was  expecting  her  sick 
sons  to  come  home  to  be  nursed.  She  was  taken  insane 
and  soon  died,  and  the  old  man,  broken  down  with  grief, 
committed  suicide.  I  cannot  personally  vouch  for  the 
statement  in  regard  to  the  parents,  but  presume  it  is  cor 
rect,  for  I  had  it  from  a  soldier  quartered  with  the  boys. 

"  Such  was  my  experience  with  the  regimental  hos 
pital,  and  yet,  so  little  do  we  know  in  the  army  of  any 
thing  beyond  what  specially  concerns  ourselves,  that  had 
I  never  been  an  inmate  of  one  I  should  never  have 
known  anything  of  the  wretched  manner  in  which  their 
affairs  were  conducted,  unless,  perchance,  I  had  had 
occasion  to  visit  sick  comrades. 

"We  arrived  at  Washington  in  the  night,  and  lay  at 
the  wharf  till  morning,  when  we  were  loaded  into  ambu 
lances  and  driven  to  the  hospitals  about  the  city.  The 
ambulance  in  which  were  Taft,  Duncan,  Sweat,  and 
myself,  was  driven  to  Mount  Pleasant  hospital.  This 
was  capable  of  accommodating  something  more  than  a 


1863.]  REGIMENTAL   HOSPITALS.  639 

thousand  soldiers.  The  sicker  ones  were  placed  in  the 
wards,  and  the  convalescents  in  tents. 

I  can  never  forget  the  change  that  came  over  me  when 
I  went  into  the  main  building,  or  hall,  and  thence  into  my 
ward.  The  wards  were  scrupulously  neat,  large,  and 
well  lighted,  a  row  of  tidy  looking  cot  beds  ranged  on 
either  side  (over  thirty  in  all),  and  the  apartments  were 
warmed  with  well  heated  coal  stoves.  Mottoes  and  ever 
greens  adorned  the  walls,  and  when  I  stepped  inside,  it 
seemed  at  first  as  if  I  had  no  right  there,  looking  grimy 
and  dirty  as  I  did.  Indeed  it  would  have  seemed  a  lux 
ury  to  lie  down  by  the  stove  in  the  outer  hall.  I  had 
been  so  long  used  to  seeing  sick  men  less  cared  for  than 
mules,  that  in  my  helplessness  I  had  come  almost  to 
think  myself  of  less  account  than  that  interesting  quad 
ruped. 

"  We  were  taken  to  the  bath-room,  where  we  stripped 
off  all  our  clothes  and  put  them  in  our  knapsacks.  Then 
we  washed  in  tepid  water  in  a  large  bath-tub,  after 
which  we  were  supplied  with  clean  cotton  shirts  and 
drawers  from  the  hospital  laundry.  These  were  a  little 
damp,  and  seemed  rather  thin  after  taking  off  woollen, 
but  the  warmth  of  the  apartment  more  than  made  up  for 
it,  so  that  I  don't  know  as  any  of  us  took  cold.  We 
were  then  shown  to  our  several  beds,  mattresses,  pil 
lows,  and  clean  sheets,  and  as  I  lay  down,  free  from  the 
'  entangling  alliances '  of  coat  and  trousers,  for  the  first 
time  since  the  commencement  of  my  sickness,  I  almost 
wondered  whether  Heaven  would  be  a  more  delightful 
place  than  that  hospital,  and  certainly  I  thanked  my 
Heavenly  Father  from  the  bottom  of  my  heart  that  I  was 
permitted  to  enjoy  such  luxuries. 

''The  hospital  was  admirably  managed  in  every  re- 


640  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [April, 

spect,  and  among  the  nurses  and  attendants  I  formed 
some  very  pleasant  acquaintances  in  the  four  weeks  I 
was  there.  I  was  happily  surprised  to  see  Barber  come 
into  my  ward  one  day.  He  had  received  his  discharge 
and  would  soon  go  home.  I  gave  him  the  trinkets  which 
he  had  left  with  me  before  I  was  taken  sick,  not  one  of 
which  I  had  lost. 

"  One  thing  was  curiously  shown  in  our  general  hos 
pitals,  viz.,  how  all  nationalities  were  represented.  Of 
the  thirty  patients  in  my  ward,  No.  4,  there  were  Yan 
kees,  Germans,  Irish,  French,  Swedes,  and  a  Norwe 
gian.  I  remember  the  Norwegian  could  not  speak  a 
word  of  English,  and  when  he  lay  dying,  he  would  talk 
so  earnestly  that  I  felt  as  though  I  would  give  anything 
to  know  what  he  said,  for  it  seemed  he  must  be  leaving 
messages  to  friends,  who  I  felt  sure  would  never  know 
anything  of  his  fate. 

"  March  31  I  left  Washington  in  the  morning,  and  rode 
to  Camp  Convalescent,  near  Alexandria,  on  open  cars  ; 
arrived  about  noon.  It  was  a  muddy,  disagreeable,  deso 
late  looking  place,  and  apparently  very  loosely  man 
aged.  The  barracks,  however,  were  comfortable  and  the 
rations  fair.  I  do  n't  know  as  any  one  pretends  to  know 
how  many  thousand  soldiers  there  were  here,  and  in  fact 
no  one  that  I  talked  with  knew  anything  definite  about 
the  camp  or  how  it  was  managed. 

" April  30  I  was  detailed  to  take  charge  of  a  squad  of 
men  on  fatigue  duty  ;  tried  to  work  a  little  myself,  but 
much  labor  seemed  to  prostrate  me.  Hundreds  were  de 
tailed  every  day  for  labor  which  they  were  by  no  means 
able  to  perform,  for  many  of  them  were  just  up  from  fevers 
and  were  still  weak.  But  on  the  other  hand  there  were 
thousands  of*  hospital  bummers,'  whose  only  idea  was  to 


**•** 


SERGT.  JOSEPH  C.  CHAPMAN,  Co.  G.  SERGT.  GEORGE  H.  DODGE,  Co.  G. 


ALMON  J.  FLETCHER,  Co.  G.  JASON  K.  WEBSTER,  Co.  G. 


1863.]  REGIMENTAL   HOSPITALS.  641 

get    a  discharge,  or  in  case  they  could   not  do  that,  to 
hold  their  quarters  as  long  as  possible. 

"  I  learned  on  April  u  that  a  lot  of  '  convalescents' 
were  to  be  started  for  the  Ninth  corps  the  next  day,  and 
being  thoroughly  disgusted  with  the  men  and  manage 
ment  in  this  camp,  I  applied  to  the  surgeon  for  permis 
sion  to  be  sent  to  Camp  Distribution,  not  far  away, 
from  which  place  they  were  to  set  out.  Obtained  the 
permission  readily,  and  started  for  Camp  Distribution. 
Found  it  a  most  lawless,  disorderly,  demoralizing,  God 
forsaken  place.  Men  of  all  corps  and  regiments  were 
huddled  into  a  camp  promiscuously,  without  any  com 
manding  officers  except  those  in  charge  of  the  guard  and 
camp  in  general.  The  drawing  of  rations  and  wood 
was  little  else  than  a  kind  of  grab  game. 

"  Marched  from  the  camp  to  Alexandria  on  the  morn 
ing  of  .pril  12,  where  the  cars  were  taken  for  Washing 
ton.  T'ie  men  were  not  as  orderly  as  they  might  have 
been  in  passing  through  the  city  of  Washington.  We 
were  taken  to  the  Soldiers'  Retreat,  where  we  remained 
over  mght.  Our  men  had  some  trouble  with  the  guard. 
It  was  cutting  for  old  soldiers  to  be  guarded  by  new  men, 
who  had  never  seen  the  front. 

"  The  First  Division  soldiers  started  on  April  14,  in  the 
morning,  and  at  6:30  p.  m.  our  Second  Division  men 
left  Washington.  Amid  song  and  laughter  and  the  clat 
ter  of  the  railroad  train,  I  lost  sight  of  the  dome  of  the 
Capitol  as  it  was  lighted  almost  to  a  flame  by  the  rays  of 
the  setting  sun. 

"I  arrived  at  Lexington,  Ky.,  on  April  18,  about 
noon;  'slipped  the  guard,  '  and  at  3  p.  in.  was  in  the 
cemetery  near  the  city,  a  most  lovely  place,  in  which 
much  money  and  labor  have  been  expended  to  testify  to 


642  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [April, 

the  regard  for  the  memory  of  the  loved  and  lost.  In  the 
central  part  of  the  ground,  towering  high  above  all 
others,  is  the  stately  monument  of  Henry  Clay,  sur 
mounted  by  a  statue  of  that  great  statesman.  In  a  mar 
ble  sarcophagus  within  the  base,  repose  the  ashes  of 
Kentucky's  noblest  son,  and  upon  this  is  inscribed  the 
following,  the  last  words  of  the  noble  patriot  concerning 
his  country  : 

"  '  I  can  with  unshaken  confidence  appeal  to  the  Divine 
Arbiter  for  the  truth  of  the  declaration  that  I  have  been 
influenced  by  no  impure  purpose,  no  personal  motive, 
have  sought  no  personal  aggrandizement,  but  that  in  all 
my  public  acts  I  have  had  a  sole  and  single  eye,  and  a 
warm,  devoted  heart,  directed  and  dedicated  to  what  in 
my  best  judgment  I  believe  to  be  the  true  interests  of  the 
country.' 

"  On  the  i  pth  of  April  we  reached  our  regiment  at 
Richmond,  Ky.  We  got  in  a  little  after  dark,  with 
lame  ankles,  peeled  toes,  skinned  heels,  having  marched 
twenty-five  miles  through  a  beautiful  territory — in  fact 
all  the  way  from  Covington  to  Richmond  we  were  trav 
ersing  a  magnificent  farming  country." 


1862.]  THE  REGIMENTAL  AND  BRIGADE  BAND.  643 

THE    REGIMENTAL   AND    BRIGADE    BAND. 
By  Musician  J.  B.  Bailey. 

The  Nashua  Cornet  band  was  organized  in  that  city  in 
April,  1861,  under  the  leadership  of  Hezekiah  P.  Hamb- 
lett,  who  was  also  their  instructor.  The  organization 
was  continued  till  August  7,  1862,  when  the  following 
members  enlisted  in  the  United  States  service  for  three 
years  :  H.  P.  Hamblett,  William  H.  Graves,  J.  B.  Bail 
ey,  J.  A.  Hamblett,  G.  A.  Andrews,  G.  H.  Lovejoy,  N. 
W.  Marshall,  Beniah  Moreland,  Edward  St.  Francis, 
Lewis  Simonds,  J.  C.  Bennett,  S.  H.  Howe,  William 
Manning,  W.  A.  Peabody,  J.  R.  Wyman,  J.  H.  Moore, 
A.  R.  Gleason,  and  E.  M.  Marble.  That  same  after 
noon  these  recruits  were  sent  to  the  rendezvous  of  the 
Ninth  New  Hampshire  at  Concord,  where  they  were 
joined  by  F.  V.  Marshall,  a  member  of  the  same  band 
who  had  previously  enlisted. 

Every  man  passed  the  surgeon's  examination,  and 
after  the  examination  played  for  dress  parade.  August 
9  they  were  mustered  in,  and  assigned  to  companies  with 
the  understanding  that  they  should  be  detailed  as  a  regi 
mental  band.  The  drum-major  was  Sylvanus  Adams,  a 
native  of  New  London,  who  had  enlisted  at  Milford, 
June  ii.  On  August  18,  Aaron  Chase  of  Sanbornton, 
H.  G.  Chase  of  Lancaster,  and  Prentiss  C.  Hutchinson 
of  Newport  were  detailed  as  musicians,  so  that  the  band 
had  twenty-three  playing  members.  Francis  Morse  of 
Nashua  was  detailed  as  cook.  The  days  from  August 
8  to  24,  inclusive,  were  passed  at  Camp  Colby,  furnishing 
the  necessary  martial  music  and  becoming  acquainted 
with  new  associates,  with  the  exception  of  a  brief  trip 
home  to  settle  business  affairs  and  say  good-bye.  From 


644  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [September, 

Concord  to  South  Mountain  the  band  performed  no  unusu 
al  duties,  except  on  September  8,  9,  and  10,  when,  the 
regiment  having  been  ordered  to  the  front,  the  musicians 
guarded  the  camp  under  command  of  the  quartermaster. 
On  the  afternoon  of  the  loth  the  band  set  out  to  rejoin 
the  regiment,  and  found  it  on  the  banks  of  the  Monocacy 
river.  At  South  Mountain  and  Antietam  effective  and 
merciful  service  was  done  in  bringing  back  the  wounded 
of  the  Ninth  and  other  regiments,  and  occasionally  a 
suffering  "Johnny,"  to  the  hospitals. 

General  Sturgis,  commanding  the  division,  had  been 
entertained  September  19  by  the  Ninth  Regiment  band, 
and  he  and  other  field  and  staff  officers  were  so  friendly 
that  the  question  of  being  made  a  brigade  band  became  a 
frequent  topic  of  conversation,  and  September  30  the 
following  circular  was  issued  from  brigade  head-quarters  : 

HEAD-QUARTERS,  FIRST  BRIGADE, 
SECOND  DIVISION,  NINTH  ARMY  CORPS, 

ANTIETAM,  September  30,  1862. 
CIRCULAR. 

The  following  privates  of  the  Ninth  Regiment,  New  Hampshire  Vol 
unteers,  have  been  detailed  from  service  in  their  regiment,  by  their 
desire,  and  detailed  for  service  in  this  Brigade,  to  form  and  constitute 
a  "Brigade  Band":  H.  P.  Hamblett,  Wm.  H.  Graves,  J.  A.  Hamb- 
lett,  John  B.  Bailey,  Stephen  H.  Howe,  N.  W.  Marshall,  A.  B. 
Chase,  Beniah  Moreland,  Lewis  Simonds,  George  H.  Lovejoy,  War 
ren  A.  Peabody,  J.  R.  Wyman,  Eben  M.  Marble,  E.  St.  Francis, 
Wm.  Manning,  Abel  R.  Gleason,  and  F.  V.  Marshall. 

Also  that  the  following  privates  of  Ninth  New  Hampshire  Volun 
teers  are  hereby  detailed  from  service,  to  serve  as  musicians  in  said 
"Brigade  Band1':  George  H.  Andrews,  H.  G.  Chase,  J.  C.  Bennett, 
James  H.  Moore,  P.  C.  Hutchinson,  and  Francis  Morse. 

By  order  Brigadier-General  James  Nagle. 

JNO.  EDWIN  MASON,  A.  A.  A.G. 


i862.]  THE  REGIMENTAL  AND  BRIGADE  BAND.  645 

The  circular  was  followed  October  i  by  this  general 

order : 

HEAD-QUARTERS  FIRST  BRIGADE, 

SECOND  DIVISION,  NINTH  ARMY  CORPS, 

ANTIETAM,  October  i,  1862. 
GENERAL  ORDERS, 

No.  26. 

The  Regimental  Band  of  the  Ninth  Regiment  New  Hampshire  Vol 
unteers,  consisting  of  seventeen  musicians  and  six  privates  from  the 
same  regiment  detailed  to  serve  as  musicians,  have  this  day  been  mus 
tered  in,  to  form  and  constitute  the  Brigade  Band. 
They  will  be  acknowledged  and  respected  accordingly. 

By  order  Brigadier-General  James  Nagle. 

JNO.  EDW.  MASON,  A.  A.  A.  G. 

Up  to  that  time  the  men  of  the  Ninth  detailed  as 
musicians  had  been  under  the  command  and  subject 
to  the  direction  of  Drum-Major  Adams  of  that  regiment, 
but  thereafter  were  to  receive  orders  from  the  brigade 
commander  or  his  adjutant-general,  and  they  no  longer 
had  any  fear  of  being  put  in  the  ranks.  The  detailed 
privates  were  as  much  benefited  as  any,  except  in  the 
matter  of  salary. 

At  Antietam  Iron  Works,  South  Antietam,  Pleasant 
Valley,  and  in  the  march  across  northern  Virginia,  there 
was  little  which  could  be  done  to  vary  each  day's  rou 
tine,  but  of  that  little  the  band  boys  did  their  share. 
They  had  to  be  present  at  guard  mounting  and  dress 
parade,  and  attended  a  few  rehearsals.  They  played 
at  general  inspections,  at  brigade  drills,  at  the  several 
head-quarters,  and  at  Sunday  services.  On  November 
27,  Thanksgiving  day,  Chaplain  Gushee  of  the  Ninth 
conducted  a  service  at  General  Nagle's  quarters.  The 
band  was  there,  and  rendered  appropriate  selections  to 
supplement  the  devout  chaplain's  eloquent  words,  and 
when  the  day  was  over  one  of  them  remarked,  "The 


646  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [January, 

services   are   all   right  to  break  the   monotony  of  camp 
life,  but  the  grub  remains  the  same  as  other  days." 

On  December  12,  in  anticipation  of  the  Battle  of  Fred- 
ericksburg,  the  bands  of  the  First  and  Second  brigades 
were  ordered  to  report  to  Division  Surgeon  Cutter  for 
instructions.  That  evening  the  Nashua  boys  serenaded 
Colonel  Stevens  and  Lieutenant-Colonel  Bowers  of  the 
Thirteenth  New  Hampshire,  both  of  whom  were  resi 
dents  of  their  city.  December  u,  the  two  brigade  bands 
worked  all  day  in  the  rear  of  Stafford  Heights,  erecting 
hospital  tents.  On  the  i2th,  they  cut  pine  and  cedar 
twigs  to  make  beds  for  the  wounded,  though  but  few  had 
as  yet  been  brought  in.  On  the  i3th,  seven  men  from 
each  band  went  to  the  city  with  Dr.  Cutter,  and  estab 
lished  hospitals  in  the  deserted  residences  and  in  the  Bap 
tist  meeting-house.  December  14  they  were  busy  at  the 
same  places.  On  the  i5th,  they  were  on  guard  at  the 
church,  but  that  night  were  ordered  to  the  north  side  of 
the  river,  where  a  good  night's  rest  was  obtained  after 
sixty  hours'  consecutive  labor. 

December  16,  one  band  was  ordered  to  cook  for  the 
wounded  during  the  day  ;  the  other  at  night.  The 
musicians  of  the  Second  brigade  got  the  day  service, 
and  General  Nagle's  proteges  the  night  work.  But 
the  bovs  made  themselves  as  comfortable  as  possible, 
and  did  their  best  for  their  suffering  comrades.  As  this 
labor  grew  lighter  the  usual  camp  duties  were  resumed. 
On  December  23  the  First  Brigade  band  played  for  a 
division  review  by  General  Sumner,  and  on  the  25th  for 
Christmas  services  at  head-quarters.  Francis  Morse 
was  discharged  on  the  29th — "the  first  man  gone." 
January  6,  1863,  there  was  a  corps  review  by  General 
Burnside,  on  the  7th  a  division  drill,  on  the  8th  a  bri- 


1863.]  THE  REGIMENTAL  AND  BRIGADE  BAND.  647 

gade  drill.  Colonel  Griffin  of  the  Sixth  returned 
January  19  from  a  visit  home,  and  was  serenaded.  He 
returned  the  compliment  by  sending  to  the  band's  quar 
ters  a  barrel  of  apples,  which  yielded  eighteen  to  a  man, 
and  were  a  great  treat. 

Aaron  Chase  received  his  discharge  January  25 — "the 
second  man  gone."  February  9  the  start  was  made  for 
Newport  News,  where  the  parade  ground  was  the  finest 
on  which  the  band  ever  played.  On  the  i9th,  Colonel 
Bowman  of  the  Thirty-sixth  Massachusetts  was  sere 
naded  ;  the  25th  was  notable  for  a  review  of  the  entire 
corps  by  Generals  Dix  and  Smith  ;  the  26th  for  a  bri 
gade  drill.  March  8  was  a  happy  and  sad  day — 
happy  for  Bandmaster  Hamblett  and  his  son  J.  A.,  as 
well  as  for  William  Manning,  all  of  whom  started  for 
home  ;  sad  for  those  left  behind,  who  were  to  miss  their 
old  associates.  William  H.  Graves  succeeded  H.  P. 
Hamblett  as  bandmaster.  On  the  nth  the  boys  wore, 
for  the  first  time,  uniforms  which  had  been  purchased  of 
the  Hawkin's  Zouaves  band  on  the  previous  day.  The 
price  paid  was  eighteen  dollars  each.  The  new  uni 
forms  were  well  christened  by  General  Sturgis,  who  kept 
the  band  playing  at  his  quarters  from  eight  o'clock  that 
night  until  two  o'clock  the  next  morning. 

The  trip  from  Virginia  to  Kentucky  was  made  very 
pleasant  by  the  Unionists  along  the  route,  but  especially 
so  at  Pittsburgh,  Pa.,  where  the  brigade  was  given  a  col 
lation  at  the  opera  house.  The  band  played  while  their 
comrades  were  eating,  and  had  a  special  supper  served 
later  in  the  green-room,  where  they  were  "  waited  on 
by  ten  of  the  handsomest  ladies  in  the  country,"  who  filled 
their  haversacks  with  cold  meats,  bread,  etc.,  and  their 
canteens  with  hot  coffee.  The  boys  played  two  pieces 


648  NINTH  NE  W  HAMPSHIRE.  [May, 

for  their  fair  hostesses,  gave  them  three  cheers,  and 
voted  Pittsburgh  the  "banner  city/'  The  cattle  car  on 
which  they  were  shipped  westward  formed  a  strong  con 
trast  to  their  surroundings  in  the  "  Smoky  city." 

The  first  campaign  in  Kentucky  was  as  pleasant  to 
the  band  as  it  was  to  the  other  Union  soldiers  quartered 
there.  Three  incidents  will  be  especially  remembered  by 
the  band  boys.  First,  their  reception  and  entertainment 
by  hospitable  musicians  of  Lexington.  One  of  these,  a 
Mr.  Saxton ,  born  in  New  Hampshire  but  for  twenty  years  a 
resident  of  Lexington,  invited  a  party  to  see  "Colleen 
Bawn  "  at  the  opera  house  where  his  orchestra  was  play 
ing ;  another,  Mr.  Stivers,  a  native  of  Lexington,  pre 
sented  Bandmaster  Graves  with  two  pieces  of  music, 
"  Kentucky  Quickstep"  and  "  Ellsworth  Funeral  March," 
both  of  which  were  pronounced  "  good."  The  second 
incident  occurred  at  Winchester,  April  15.  In  the  after 
noon  came  a  brigade  drill,  then  review  by  General  Stur- 
gis,  after  which  the  band  played  by  invitation  at  the 
Ninth  New  Hampshire  head-quarters,  and  after  the  con 
cert  received  from  the  officers  of  that  regiment  one  hun 
dred  and  seventy-seven  dollars  towards  paying  for  uni 
forms.  This  presentation  was  a  complete  and  delightful 
surprise.  The  third  incident  evoked  feelings  of  a  differ 
ent  character.  It  was  the  resignation  of  General  James 
Nagle,  commanding  the  brigade.  His  farewell  address 
was  read  at  dress  parade  on  the  afternoon  of  May  21. 
After  supper  the  band  played  for  him  for  the  last  time. 
He  listened  attentively,  made  "  a  nice  little  speech," 
complimented  the  boys  on  their  improvement  and  good 
behavior,  and  shook  each  by  the  hand  and  bade  him 
good-bye.  A  member  of  the  band  said,  "  He  has  been 
a  dear  good  friend  to  us,  and  will  not  soon  be  forgotten," 


1863.]  THE  REGIMENTAL  AND  BRIGADE  BAND.  649 

and  the  remark  was  echoed  and  endorsed  by  every  one 
in  hearing.  The  general  left  that  night  for  his  home  in 
Pennsylvania. 

During  the  Vicksburg  campaign  the  usual  amount  of 
hospital  work  was  performed  by  those  of  the  band  who 
were  on  duty,  but  several  of  them  were  on  the  sick-list. 
Every  one  was  glad  when  the  city  was  taken  and  all 
except  ''the  loved  ones  gone  before"  were  back  in  Ken 
tucky  once  more.  At  Milldale,  Mississippi,  the  sick 
members,  Howe,  Andrews,  Gleason,  and  Wyman,  had 
come  back  to  duty  and  were  cordially  welcomed,  but 
nearly  every  one  had  contracted  so  much  malaria  in  the 
swamps  of  the  Yazoothat  they  continued  to  "  shake"  even 
in  the  genial  Kentucky  climate,  and  whisky  and  quinine 
in  large  doses  were  a  common  necessity.  Before  Septem 
ber  6,  three — Moreland,  St.  Francis,  and  George  Stevens 
— had  died.  Others  were  seriously  ill,  but  had  recovered 
sufficiently  by  October  to  enable  the  band  to  appear  at 
guard  mount  with  twelve  men,  boots  blacked,  buttons 
bright,  and  white  gloves.  This  was  their  first  appearance 
after  the  return,  and  it  "  pleased  the  officers  and  surprised 
the  natives."  October  9  a  smart  looking  negro  was  en 
gaged  as  cook.  On  the  same  date  Wyman  and  Band 
master  Graves  received  furloughs.  Graves  returned  from 
New  Hampshire  November  14,  and  soon  after  came  three 
new  members,  Harvey  M.  Hall,  J.  E.  Hobson,  and  Charles 
Bohonan ;  but  instruments  were  lacking,  and  so  many 
were  sick  again  that  little  routine  work  was  performed. 
Some  serenading  was  done,  as  for  instance,  when  Lieu 
tenant  Quimby  of  the  Ninth  was  presented  by  the  con 
scripts  with  a  gold  watch,  and  the  members  of  the  band 
who  were  well  enough  were  introduced  to  General  Am- 
men,  who  was  in  command  of  Central  Kentucky,  and 


650  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [June, 

were  complimented  for  their  good  work  in  the  hospitals. 
A  sad  feature  of  the  stay  in  Kentucky  was  the  large 
number  of  funerals  at  which  the  band  officiated.  Janu- 
uary  17,  A.  R.  Gleason  died  at  the  post  hospital  in  Paris, 
and  on  March  21  the  news  of  the  death  of  George  H. 
Andrews  was  received. 

During  the  latter  part  of  March  rumors  were  rife  that  the 
Ninth  corps  would  soon  be  ordered  east,  and  they  proved 
true,  for  on  April  2  the  First  brigade  was  played  to  the 
station  at  Nicholasville,  and  with  its  band  took  cars  for 
Annapolis,  which  was  reached  on  the  7th. 

On  the  I4th,  J.  R.  Wyman  died  in  his  tent.  His 
body  was  sent  to  Nashua,  under  care  of  Howe.  Previous 
losses  had  been  partially  made  up  by  the  new  arrivals 
in  Kentucky  and  by  details  from  the  Sixth  New  Hamp 
shire.  May  4,  three  more  were  detailed,  this  time  from 
the  Seventeenth  Vermont,  viz.,  G.  H.  Swift,  A.  M. 
Johnson,  and  H.  W.  Walker.  May  6,  the  band  reported 
to  the  division  surgeon  near  the  Wilderness  battle-field, 
and  from  then  till  June  18  each  man  was  on  the  jump  all 
the  time,  either  caring  for  the  wounded  or  trying  to  find 
brigade  head-quarters,  which  were  changed  so  frequently 
from  Spottsylvania  to  Petersburg  that  those  in  the  rear 
could  not  always  find  them  when  their  special  work  was 
done.  By  June  21  the  boys  had  found  each  other  again, 
and  on  the  22d  a  comfortable  camp  was  made  not  far 
from  General  Potter's  head-quarters  before  Petersburg. 
Then  began  a  series  of  guard  mountings,  dress  parades, 
head-quarters  and  miscellaneous  serenades,  and  private 
rehearsals,  which  continued  without  much  interruption 
until  the  explosion  of  the  mine,  July  30.  On  that  morn 
ing  the  band  boys  were  out  early,  and  went  to  the  left, 
where  a  good  view  of  the  explosion  was  had.  August 


1864.]  THE  REGIMENTAL  AND  BRIGADE  BAND.  651 

15  the  division  moved  two  miles  to  the  left,  and  the  boys 
lost  their  pleasant  quarters.  On  the  ipth  the  division 
was  moved  still  farther  to  the  left,  and  again  the  band 
went  with  it.  October  5,  news  was  received  of  the 
death  of  H.  M.  Hall.  At  the  Pegram  House  fight,  Sep 
tember  30,  the  band  became  scattered,  but  soon  got 
together  again,  and  after  the  movement  on  Hatcher's 
Run  every  one  was  glad  to  get  back  to  the  old  quarters. 
On  November  29  orders  to  move  were  received,  and  a 
march  of  five  miles  was  made  to  Hancock  Station,  where 
winter  quarters  were  established.  The  band  built  three 
log  houses.  The  largest  had  a  room  for  rehearsals,  and 
bunks  for  Hutchinson,  Bailey,  Chase,  Lovejoy,  and 
Moore.  The  two  smaller  ones  were  occupied  by  Howe, 
Bennett,  Hobson,  Bohonan,  F.  V.  Marshall,  N.  W. 
Marshall,  Swift,  and  Johnson,  four  in  each  house. 
Graves  and  Simonds  had  a  small  wall  tent. 

A  feature  of  the  winter's  encampment  was  the  fre 
quent  playing  of  the  brigade  to  executions  of  deserters. 
Rehearsals  were  kept  up  religiously, — for  instance,  on 
December  14  the  general  gave  directions  that  after 
guard  mount  in  the  morning  each  man  should  practise 
by  himself  for  one  hour,  that  at  two  o'clock  the  full  band 
should  play  at  head-quarters  for  one  and  a  half  hours, 
and  at  four  o'clock  be  at  Fort  Davis  for  dress  parade, 
that  after  the  parade  a  few  pieces  should  be  rendered 
in  front  of  the  colonel's  quarters,  and  that  the  evening 
rehearsals  should  last  from  six  to  eight  o'clock,  making 
a  total  of  seven  and  a  half  hours  per  day  for  each  man. 
On  the  I9th,  Governor  and  Mrs.  Gilmore  of  New  Hamp 
shire  were  at  the  general's  head-quarters,  and  received 
a  three  hours  serenade.  Bandmaster  Graves  started  for 
home  February  12,  1865,  and  there  was  no  playing  for 


652  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.  [April, 

a  while.  He  returned  March  10,  and  held  a  rehearsal 
that  same  evening — the  boys  had  had  enough  of  loafing 
just  then. 

On  the  25th  the  Fort  Stedman  affair  broke  the  quiet 
of  the  Union  soldiers'  life,  and  the  2,100  prisoners  taken 
from  the  Confederates  were  marched  by  division  head 
quarters.     March  28  three    new  members    arrived  from 
Newport,  N.  H.,  viz.,  D.  W.  Allen,  C.  C.  Webber,  and 
M.  H.  Whitcomb.     April  2  the  Ninth  corps  advanced, 
carrying  forts  and   fortifications,  capturing  cannon  and 
prisoners,    and    on    the    3d  the    band  marched  through 
Petersburg    at  the   head  of  its   division  and  just  before 
President  Lincoln,  playing  the  "  Faust  Quickstep."    The 
feeling  then  was  that  Lee  would  have  to  be  chased  all 
over  the  Southern  Confederacy,  but  the  boys  were  glad 
to  get  him  started.     On  the  4th  the  belief  that  the  war 
was  nearly  over  increased.     On  the  5th  the  band  camped 
at  Millville  Station.     Nottoway  Court-house  was  reached 
on  the  6th,  where  a  halt  was  ordered  till  five  o'clock  on 
the  afternoon  of  the  8th,  when    a  further    advance  was 
made  to   Burkesville  Junction.      Sheridan's   capture    of 
12,000  prisoners,  with  cannon,  wagon  trains,  etc.,  was 
announced   on  the   7th.     On   the  rainy  morning  of  the 
loth,  just  as  the  band  were  trying  to  decide  whether  to 
play  or  not,  an  aide  dashed  up  to  General  Potter's  quarters 
bringing   the    glorious    news    of    Lee's    surrender,    and 
called   out,   ''Boys,  can't  you   give  us  a  little  music!" 
The  boys  rather  thought  they  could,  and  amid  cheers, 
din,  and   confusion    indescribable,  played  for  two  solid 
hours,  winding  up  with  the  national  airs  and  "Yankee 
Doodle."     The  "Johnnies,"  many  of  whom  were  pris 
oners  near  by,  were   no  less  glad  that  peace  had  come 
than  were  their  former  foes. 


1865.]  THE  REGIMENTAL  AND  BRIGADE  BAND.  653 

At  last  the  war  was  over,  and  on  April  20  the  march 
towards  Petersburg  began.  We  arrived  at  that  place 
on  the  23d,  and  were  given  an  opportunity  to  view  the 
fortifications.  City  Point  was  reached  that  afternoon, 
and  on  the  27th  we  were  at  Alexandria,  where  we 
remained  until  the  grand  review,  May  21.  On  that 
occasion  we  united  with  the  Fifty-sixth  Massachusetts 
band,  as  we  had  many  times  before  when  our  own  num 
bers  were  few,  and  marching  at  the  head  of  our  division, 
played  the  "  Faust  Quickstep  "  as  we  passed  in  review. 
We  had  intended  to  use  the  noisy  **  Door-Latch  Quick 
step,"  and  discount  all  the  other  bands,  but  we  arrived  at 
the  reviewing  stand  so  suddenly  that  the  opportunity  was 
lost,  a  great  disappointment  to  all  the  boys.  The  band 
reached  Concord  June  13,  and  joined  in  the  formalities 
and  festivities  of  that  and  the  following  days.  We  played 
together  for  the  last  time  on  the  I4th.  On  the  I5th, 
when  the  soldiers  were  paid  oft',  the  band's  discharge 
papers  had  not  arrived,  and  the  boys  had  to  leave  for 
home  without  their  pay-  On  June  22  we  were  notified 
to  be  at  the  Capital  city  on  the  24th.  We  were  all  on 
hand  and  received  our  money,  and  said  a  last  good-bye 
to  Uncle  Sam. 

Following  is  a  table  of  facts  relating  to  the  band 
which  will  be  found  of  interest : 


65 4  NINTH  NE  W  HAMPSHIRE. 

Term  of  enlistment      ...  ....     3  years 

Term  of  service  .  .         .        34  months 

Whole  number  of  members  during  term  of  service         .          .          .33 
Original  members          .........   22 

Mustered  as  musicians  October  i ,  1 862  .          .          .          .17 

Detailed  as  musicians  October  i,  1862  .          .  .5 

Afterwards  detailed  as  musicians  .          .  ....     8 

Afterwards  enlisted  as  musicians  .......     3 

Discharged  during  term  of  service  .          .          .          .          .6 

Died  during  term  of  service  .  .....      7 

Returned  in  1865,  with  the  regiment     .  .  .15 

Original  members  returning  with  regiment     .  .n 

Left  in  service     ......  .  .8 

Deserted     .  : 


JAMES  H.  ALDRICH,  Co.  B. 


CHAPTER  XX. 

BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCHES. 


JAMES    H.    ALDRICH. 

Comrade  James  H.  Aldrich,  who  was  born  in  Lisbon 
in  1838,  was  the  son  of  Jethro  and  Mehetabel  (Moody) 
Aldrich,  and  is  a  resident  of  Dalton  at  the  present  time. 
He  enlisted  July  12,  1862,  and  was  assigned  to  Company 
B  of  the  Ninth  regiment.  At  the  Battle  of  Antietam  he 
received  a  gunshot  wound  in  the  right  leg  and  a  bayonet 
thrust  in  the  left  knee,  but  was  in  the  Battle  of  Fredericks- 
burg,  December  13,  and  participated  in  the  Mississippi 
campaign  the  following  summer.  Perhaps  no  other 
incident  of  his  soldier  life  made  a  more  vivid  impression 
on  his  memory  than  that  connected  with  the  death  of 
Captain  Alexander,  which  is  given  in  his  own  words  as 
follows  : 

"  It  was  in  July,  1863,  and  we  were  in  the  vicinity  of 
Jackson,  Miss.  After  marching  all  day  we  had  been 
ordered  on  picket  to  relieve  a  colored  regiment.  Cap 
tain  Alexander  had  been  posting  the  pickets,  and  in 
returning  to  give  the  countersign  was  mistaken  for  a 
rebel  and  mortally  wounded  by  one  of  his  men.  Thomas 
Bond  and  myself  carried  him  to  the  rear,  and  then 
returned  to  our  posts.  The  enemy  were  creeping  up  on 
us  all  night.  Dustin,  the  man  below  me,  was  murdered, 
and  then  my  turn  came  to  be  attacked.  It  was  a  severe 
struggle,  but  I  finally  came  off  conqueror  with  only  a 


65  6  NINTH  NE  W  HAMPSHIRE. 

sword  wound  in  the  groin.  We  were  relieved  the  next 
morning,  and  I  was  detailed  to  help  carry  Captain  Alex 
ander  back  to  Milldale,  which  was  a  four  days  march. 
Shortly  after  reaching  Milldale  the  captain  died,  and  I 
was  then  detailed  to  take  his  body  to  Vicksburg  and 
attend  to  the  burial.  On  my  return  to  Milldale  I  was 
taken  down  with  inflammation  of  the  bowels,  and  lay  on 
the  ground  for  two  weeks.  As  soon  as  I  had  recovered 
sufficiently  I  was  detailed  to  go  with  the  quartermaster, 
and  remained  with  the  regiment  until  the  end." 


S.  JUDSON  ALEXANDER. 

Capt.  S.  Judson  Alexander  was  a  native  of  Hopkin- 
ton,  but  his  father  removing  to  Concord  when  Judson  was 
but  two  years  of  age,  that  city  was  the  scene  of  his  short 
but  happy  life.  He  was  born  June  23,  1837,  and  died 
July  23,  1863,  from  the  effects  of  a  wound  received  while 
on  picket  duty  near  Jackson,  Miss.  He  was  a  member 
of  Dartmouth  college,  and  had  he  continued  his  studies 
would  have  completed  the  course  with  the  class  of  1863. 
The  diary  which  Captain  Alexander  kept  during  his  war 
service  has  been  preserved,  and  its  first  entry,  June  23, 
1862,  his  twenty-fifth  birthday,  bespeaks  the  high  purpose 
which  animated  his  heroic  soul:  "  For  the  past  three 
years  I  have  been  at  4  Old  Dartmouth,'  but  have  left  my 
class,  with  many  regrets,  to  help  put  down  the  unholy 
rebellion  wraged  by  traitors  against  our  noble  country. 
For  the  past  three  weeks  I  have  been  recruiting  in  Con 
cord,  and  have  enlisted  fifteen  men.  I  hope  soon  the 
Ninth  regiment  will  be  in  the  field,  ready  to  do  its  duty." 

The  last  entry  is  under  date  of  July  13,  1863,  and  that 
very  night  Captain  Alexander  was  mortally  wounded. 
The  following  day  he  was  removed  in  an  ambulance 


BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCHES.  657 

back  to  the  Yazoo  river,  and  died  at  Milldale,  near 
Haines's  Bluff.  Only  one  short  year  had  elapsed  since 
he  had  exchanged  the  book  for  the  sword,  and  laid  his 
strong  young  life,  so  full  of  promise  of  future  excellence, 
both  in  military  and  literary  lines,  a  willing  sacrifice  upon 
the  altar  of  the  country  he  loved  so  well. 

The  body  of  Captain  Alexander,  which  had  been 
interred  at  Vicksburg,  was  brought  to  Concord,  January 
n,  1864,  and  the  following  day  was  buried  with  civil 
and  military  honors.  Private  services  were  held  at  his 
late  home,  conducted  by  Rev.  Dr.  E.  E.  Cummings,  after 
which  the  remains  were  borne  to  the  Pleasant  street 
Baptist  church,  of  which  the  deceased  was  a  member, 
escorted  by  a  company  of  the  Invalid  corps  and  the 
Concord  Brigade  band.  Tender  and  affectionate  tributes 
of  respect  were  paid  to  the  memory  of  the  gallant  young 
captain  by  Dr.  Cummings  and  associate  pastors,  and  the 
body  of  the  earnest,  conscientious  Christian  soldier  was 
followed  to  its  last,  long  rest  by  a  large  concourse  of 
mourning  friends  and  citizens. 


BENJAMIN  R.  ALLEN. 

Benjamin  R.  Allen  is  a  native  of  Newport,  and  was 
born  May  26,  1833.  As  the  son  of  a  farmer  he  enjoyed 
the  usual  advantages  in  schooling  and  training,  and  later 
on  learned  the  trade  of  a  carpenter.  From  a  boy  he 
manifested  a  strong  liking  for  music,  and  at  the  time  the 
war  broke  out  was  director  of  music  at  the  South  Congre 
gational  church,  Newport,  and  also  leader  of  the  New 
port  Cornet  band.  Enlisting  in  August,  1862,  he  was 
mustered  in  as  first  sergeant  of  Company  K.  His  record 
as  a  soldier  won  for  him  by  successive  promotions  the 


XLII 


658  NINTH  NE  W  HAMPSHIRE. 

position  of  captain  of  Company  H,  early  in  1865.  He 
was  wounded  but  once,  at  the  Battle  of  Poplar  Springs 
Church,  September  30,  1864,  and  was  mustered  out  with 
the  regiment  at  Concord. 

Since  the  war  Captain  Allen  has  resided  most  of  the 
time  at  Newport.  Besides  following  his  trade  he  has 
been  an  instructor  of  vocal  music,  enjoys  a  wide  repu 
tation  as  a  teacher  in  singing  schools,  and  still  retains  his 
position  as  director  of  music.  He  represented  his  native 
town  in  the  legislature  of  1891,  and  has  been  chairman 
of  the  board  of  supervisors  of  Newport  for  the  past  ten 
years.  His  home  life  has  been  a  most  pleasant  one. 
He  was  married  August  8,  1857,  to  Miss  Mary  H.  Gil- 
more  of  Newport,  and  has  five  children.  The  oldest 
child,  and  only  son,  Fred  J.,  married  Miss  Carrie  Mar 
tin,  and  lives  in  Atlanta,  Ga.  Dora  A.  married  Charles 
F.  Bingham,  and  has  her  home  in  Brattleboro,  Vt.  ;  a 
second  daughter,  Addie  Florence,  married  William  H. 
Corser,  and  is  also  a  resident  of  Brattleboro.  The  two 
unmarried  daughters,  Mary  Blanche  and  Minnie  Myrtle, 
reside  respectively  at  Newport  and  Brattleboro. 


JAMES    C.   AVER. 

Sergeant  Ayer  was  born  in  Deerfield  in  1823,  but  was 
living  with  his  family  in  Somersworth,  when  in  April, 
1861,  he  enlisted  in  a  three  months  company  under  Capt. 
Ichabod  Pearl.  He  was  sent  to  Fort  Constitution,  and 
served  his  time  out  there,  re-enlisting  the  same  day  of 
his  discharge  for  three  years  in  the  heavy  artillery  under 
Colonel  Kent.  Here  he  remained  until  April  i,  1862, 
when  he  was  discharged,  and  immediately  re-enlisted 


BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCHES.  659 

under  Captain  Davidson.  In  August  of  that  year  he 
was  transferred  to  Company  E  of  the  Ninth  New  Hamp 
shire,  and  was  promoted  to  be  sergeant.  For  more 
than  a  year  he  had  been  in  the  service  of  his  country,  and 
as  he  had  received  no  bounty,  and  no  state  aid,  he  soon 
found  it  difficult  to  support  his  family  of  seven  children,  the 
oldest  but  fifteen  years  of  age  and  the  youngest  only  three, 
on  his  scanty  pay  of  seventeen  dollars  per  month,  so  he 
was  finally  obliged  to  mortgage  his  comfortable  home  to 
keep  the  wolf  from  the  door.  At  the  Battle  of  Antietam, 
September  17,  1862,  Sergeant  Ayer,  with  Sergt.  Henry 
O.  Sargent,  was  ordered  to  the  rear  to  guard  the  prison 
ers  which  were  brought  in.  They  were  stationed  at  the 
well  remembered  "  brick  house,"  on  the  west  side  of  the 
road,  and  by  the  time  night  came  on  had  a  total  of  fifty- 
seven  prisoners.  The  following  day  Sergeant  Ayer 
received  orders  to  deliver  his  charges  to  Colonel  Wood, 
and  thereupon  marched  them  to  the  camp  of  that  officer, 
about  a  mile  to  the  east.  After  turning  over  his  prison 
ers,  the  sergeant  asked  the  officer  of  the  day,  Lieut.  S.  S. 
Culburton,  for  a  receipt,  which  was  given  him.  For  a 
disability  resulting  from  wounds  received  in  battle, 
which  rendered  him  unfit  for  further  active  service,  he 
was  sent  to  the  general  hospital  at  Middletown.  From 
there  he  was  carried  to  Frederick,  and  thence  to  Wash 
ington,  receiving  his  discharge  December  16,  1863. 
Though  he  has  never  recovered  from  the  disability 
incurred  by  his  injuries,  and  will  be  a  cripple  for  life,  the 
receipt  for  his  prisoners-of-war,  together  with  the  origi 
nal  list  of  their  names  and  addresses,  is  still  cherished 
as  one  of  Sergeant  Ayer's  choicest  possessions. 


660  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE. 

EDWIN    C.    BABB. 

The  subject  of  this  sketch  was  born  in  Westbrook, 
Maine,  February  i,  1834.  His  mother,  Mary  Winslow, 
was  a  lineal  descendant  of  Governor  Winslow  of  Massa 
chusetts.  He  was  educated  in  the  common  and  grammar 
schools  of  his  native  town,  and  in  the  common  schools  of 
Bridgeton,  Maine,  where  he  also  taught  for  a  short  time. 
Later,  he  learned  the  marble-cutting  trade,  which  he  fol 
lowed  for  a  few  years,  and  then  rejoined  his  father's 
family  in  Berlin  Falls,  New  Hampshire,  where  he  was 
engaged  in  the  lumbering  business  for  a  number  of 
years. 

During  the  dark  days  of  the  Rebellion,  when  McClellan 
had  been  defeated  on  the  Peninsula,  and  the  call  came 
for  more  troops,  he  left  the  profitable  business  in  which 
he  was  engaged,  and  went  to  Concord  and  enlisted  as  a 
private  soldier  in  the  Ninth  regiment,  in  which,  at  that 
time,  he  did  not  know  a  single  man.  He  was  made 
second  sergeant,  before  leaving  the  state,  in  Company  F. 
He  was  soon  promoted  to  be  first  sergeant  of  the  same 
company,  and  a  short  time  later  to  be  second  lieutenant 
of  Company  H.  Another  promotion  carried  him  back  to 
Company  F  as  first  lieutenant,  and  later  still,  he  was 
made  captain  of  Company  G. 

His  history  written  in  full  would  be  much  the  same  as 
that  of  any  other  soldier  who  participated  in  all  the  bat 
tles  in  which  the  regiment  was  engaged.  At  the  Battle 
of  Spottsylvania,  where  the  regiment  made  its  greatest 
loss,  the  subject  of  this  sketch  commanded  Company  F, 
which  was  on  the  extreme  right  of  the  regiment  and 
joined  the  extreme  left  of  Hancock's  corps.  He  was 
assisted  by  Lieut.  C.  W.  Wilcox,  who,  with  many  others, 


BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCHES.  66 1 

was  captured.  The  extreme  left  of  the  regiment  was 
unprotected,  and  two  columns  of  rebels,  whose  numbers 
were  at  least  ten  to  one,  moved  quickly  around  the  left 
flank.  One  half  of  the  regiment  was  killed,  wounded, 
and  captured,  and  the  remnant  fell  back  and  sought  to 
rejoin  the  remainder  of  the  corps.  During  this  march 
toward  the  left  of  the  line,  Captain  Babb  was  detailed 
by  the  regimental  commander  to  march  with  his  company 
in  advance  of  the  regiment,  and  a  long  distance  toward 
the  enemy,  to  prevent  surprises  or  an  ambuscade.  The 
right  of  the  corps  line,  however,  was  safely  reached, 
where  the  regiment  was  engaged  with  the  enemy  during 
the  remainder  of  that  day. 

After  his  discharge  from  the  army  he  went  to  Minne 
apolis,  Minnesota,  where  he  engaged  in  the  lumber 
business,  which  he  followed  for  a  few  years,  and  then 
commenced  dealing  in  real  estate  and  in  many  other 
kinds  of  property,  in  all  of  which  he  has  been  financially 
successful. 

When  the  National  encampment  of  the  Grand  Army 
decided  at  Denver  to  hold  its  next  meeting  at  Minne 
apolis,  he  was  chosen  department  commander  and  chair 
man  of  committee  for  that  year.  He  served  as  alderman 
in  1886  and  1887,  declining  a  re-election  in  1888.  He 
was  elected  mayor  of  the  city  in  1889  and  1890,  and  has 
been  prominent  among  the  business  men  who  have  built 
up  that  wonderful  metropolis. 


JOHN    W.    BABBITT. 

The  subject  of  this  brief  sketch  was  born  in  Keene, 
June  12,  1835.  Hig  early  life  was  spent  in  his  native 
town,  where  he  was  educated  in  the  excellent  schools 


66  2  NINTH  NE  W  HA  M PS  HIRE. 

for  which  the  town  and  subsequent  city  has  ever  been 
noted.  At  the  breaking  out  of  the  Rebellion  young 
Babbitt  was  living  the  city  of  Bloomington,  111.  His 
patriotic  spirit  was  at  once  aroused  by  the  wicked  out 
break,  and  he  was  one  of  the  first  to  enlist  in  defence  of 
his  country.  He  enlisted  April  19,  1861,  in  a  regi 
ment  formed  for  three  months'  service,  during  which 
time  he  was  promoted  to  the  position  of  sergeant.  At 
the  expiration  of  his  term  of  service  he  joined  the  Fifty- 
eighth  Illinois,  was  commissioned  second  lieutenant  in 
that  gallant  corps  of  soldiers,  December  24,  1861,  and 
on  the  26th  of  the  following  March  was  promoted  to  the 
captaincy  of  Company  B  in  the  same  regiment.  At  the 
siege  of  Fort  Donelson  his  regiment  was  assigned  a 
conspicuous  position,  and  in  one  of  the  assaults  on  that 
rebel  stronghold  he  was  wounded,  but  not  so  severely  as 
to  prevent  his  continuing  in  the  service.  In  the  Battle 
of  Shiloh,  and  again  at  Corinth,  Miss.,  he  was  severely 
wounded,  necessitating  his  discharge,  which  was  given 
him  July  3,  1862,  when  he  returned  to  his  home  in 
Keene  to  recuperate.  At  that  time  recruiting  for  the 
Ninth  New  Hampshire  was  going  on,  and  as  soon  as  he 
was  able  to  get  about,  Captain  Babbitt  offered  his  services 
to  the  governor  of  New  Hampshire,  in  whatever  capacity 
he  saw  fit  to  engage  him.  The  governor  recognized  in 
Captain  Babbitt  not  only  an  experienced  organizer,  but 
a  brave  and  enthusiastic  soldier,  and  he  at  once  assigned 
him  to  duty  as  captain  of  Company  I,  Ninth  New  Hamp 
shire,  his  commission  being  dated  August  10,  1862.  In 
this  capacity  he  served  until  November  22  following, 
when  he  was  promoted  to  be  lieutenant-colonel  of  the 
regiment.  This  position  he  held  until  May  7,  1864, 
when  he  was  ordered  to  take  command  of  the  Thirty-sec- 


BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCHES.  663 

ond  Maine.  The  Battle  of  Spottsylvania  Court-House, 
in  which  this  regiment  was  hotly  engaged,  occurred 
May  12,  the  same  year,  and  in  that  engagement  Colonel 
Babbitt  was  again  severely  wounded,  and  was  removed 
to  the  officers'  hospital  at  Annapolis,  Md.,  for  surgical 
treatment.  Partially  recovering  from  his  wounds,  he 
was  detailed  from  the  hospital  to  serve  on  general  court- 
martial  and  military  commission  at  Baltimore,  Md., 
where  he  remained  nearly  six  months,  or  until  December 
5,  1864,  when  he  was  discharged  from  the  service  for 
disability. 

During  Colonel  Babbitt's  long  service  as  an  officer  in 
the  Union  army  it  is  believed  that  he  never  incurred  the 
ill-will  of  a  single  soldier  under  his  command.  He  was 
immensely  popular  in  the  organizations  with  which  he 
was  connected,  and  was  held  in  high  esteem  by  his 
superiors.  Since  the  war  Colonel  Babbitt  has  held 
many  responsible  and  honorable  positions  in  civil  life, 
and  at  the  present  time  enjoys  fairly  good  health, 
although  never  fully  recovering  from  the  honorable 
wounds  received  when  battling  for  his  country. 


ALDEN    B.    BENNETT. 

Alden  Bradford  Bennett  was  born  at  Dunstable,  Mass., 
in  1816.  In  1839  ne  enlisted  on  the  United  States  ship 
Ohio  as  ship  fifer.  He  served  three  years,  most  of 
the  time  sailing  on  the  Mediterranean.  At  the  breaking 
out  of  the  War  of  the  Rebellion  he  was  the  third  man  to 
enlist  from  New  Hampshire,  and  did  three  months'  ser 
vice  in  the  First  regiment.  He  re-enlisted  in  the  Ninth 
July  3,  1862,  and  August  6  was  mustered  in  as  principal 
musician  in  the  regimental  band.  He  was  given  a  dis- 


664  NINTH  NE IV  HA  MPSH1RE. 

charge  at  Falmouth,  and  shortly  after  was  again  doing 
service  as  fife-major  in  the  Thirty-ninth  Massachusetts. 
The  last  sixteen  months  of  his  service  were  spent  in  the 
hospital  at  Washington,  whither  he  was  ordered  as  the  re 
sult  of  a  fall  received  while  marching.  He  was  there, 
awaiting  his  discharge  for  disability,  when  the  volunteer 
service  was  mustered  out  at  the  close  of  the  war.  Com 
rade  Bennett  was  a  genial,  free-hearted  man,  of  quick 
impulses  and  a  generous  nature.  His  jovial  good  humor 
made  him  popular  among  his  comrades  during  the  war, 
and  in  later  years  his  fund  of  reminiscence  and  gift  at 
story-telling  made  him  the  welcome  centre  of  any  group. 
He  was  a  shoemaker  by  trade,  and  followed  this  occupa 
tion  during  the  years  he  resided  at  Amherst.  He  died  of 
apoplexy  May  15,  1895,  leaving  a  widow  and  two  chil 
dren,  Mrs.  Oscar  Shaffer  of  Amherst  and  Mrs.  Dr. 
McLeod  of  New  Bedford,  Mass.,  and  was  buried  under 
the  auspices  of  Post  Phelps. 


CHARLES    M.    BLAISDELL. 

Charles  M.  Blaisdell  was  born  in  Somersworth,  in 
1843.  He  was  a  clerk  in  Boston  at  the  time  of  his  en 
listment  in  the  navy,  early  in  1861.  Here  he  served  one 
year,  and  was  discharged  in  March,  1862,  on  account  of 
small-pox.  He  went  home,  intending  to  continue  his  ed 
ucation  at  the  Great  Falls  high  school,  but  public  senti 
ment  was  at  fever  heat,  and  he  had  been  at  home  but  a 
few  weeks  when  he  was  carried  away  by  enthusiasm  and 
enlisted  in  Company  F  of  the  Ninth  New  Hampshire 
volunteers.  He  followed  the  fortunes  of  the  regiment 
during  its  entire  service,  participating  in  all  the  battles, 
marches,  and  hardships,  and  was  absent  only  during  the 


BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCHES.  665 

march  from  Knoxville  to  Covington,  Ky.,  acting  as  as 
sistant  commissary  sergeant  from  July  to  October,  1863. 

Comrade  Blaisdell  was  but  eighteen  years  old  when  he 
shouldered  his  musket  and  did  a  man's  duty  in  the  ranks. 
He  was  a  modest,  true,  and  brave  soldier,  always  at  his 
post,  no  matter  how  hazardous,  and  never  flinching 
or  complaining.  He  is  another  example  of  the  high  class 
of  young  men  that  left  school,  home,  friends,  and  future 
prospects  and  laid  his  life  on  the  altar  of  his  country,  as 
his  success  in  later  life  has  fully  testified. 

The  summer  following  the  war  he  went  to  Boston,  and 
was  employed  by  the  Boston  &  Providence  railroad  as 
clerk.  In  the  fall  of  1865  he  received  an  offer  from 
Florida,  and  for  three  years  was  engaged  in  raising  cot 
ton  in  that  state.  At  the  end  of  that  time  he  returned 
North,  and  went  into  business  with  his  brothers,  S.  Blais 
dell,  Jr.,  &  Co.,  of  Chicopee,  Mass.,  dealers  in  cotton 
and  wrool.  Owing  to  his  superior  business  abilities  he 
has  been  largely  instrumental  in  laying  the  foundations 
of  one  of  the  largest  cotton  houses  in  this  country,  and  in 
establishing  a  large  foreign  trade,  and  since  1888  has 
been  at  the  head  of  the  firm.  His  pleasing  address  and 
sterling  business  qualities  have  won  for  the  firm  an  envi 
able  international  reputation,  and  for  himself  many 
pleasant  trips  across  the  ocean  and  many  friends  in 
foreign  countries.  Mr.  Blaisdell  and  his  accomplished 
and  talented  wife  (born  Mary  H.  Starr,  of  Deerfield, 
Mass.)  have  rare  taste  and  capacity  for  the  beautiful  in 
art,  and  in  their  extensive  travels  through  this  and  for 
eign  countries  have  gathered  many  choice  paintings  and 
curios  with  which  to  adorn  the  pleasant  home  where 
they  both  delight  to  entertain  their  friends,  and  where 
every  comrade  may  be  sure  of  a  hearty  welcome. 


666  NINTH  NE  W  HAMPSHIRE. 

HENRY    J.    BOOTHBY. 

Henry  J.  Boothby  was  a  native  of  Conway,  and  had 
but  just  attained  his  majority  when  he  enlisted  from  that 
town,  as  a  private  in  Company  D,  July  19,  1862.  On  the 
organization  of  the  company  he  was  mustered  in  as  cor 
poral.  At  the  Battle  of  Antietam,  September  17,  1862, 
Corporal  Boothby  was  wounded  in  the  arm,  disabling  him 
from  active  service  for  some  time,  but  bringing  to  him 
the  well-deserved  promotion  to  first  sergeant  of  the  com 
pany.  While  serving  in  the  trenches  before  Petersburg, 
July  23,  1864,  Sergeant  Boothby  was  again  severely 
wounded.  He  was  commissioned  as  second  lieutenant  in 
November  of  that  year,  but  not  having  fully  recovered 
from  his  wound  was  unable  to  serve,  and  was  finally  dis 
charged  on  account  of  permanent  disability,  January  13, 
1865.  He  died  at  Garfield,  Ark.,  January  13,  1888,  but 
through  the  kindness  of  his  sister,  Mrs.  H.  A.  Herrick,  of 
Marlborough,  a  photograph  of  Sergeant  Boothby,  taken 
during  his  term  of  service,  was  secured  for  this  volume. 


ELMER    BRAGG. 

Elsewhere  in  the  history  Sergt.  N.  T.  Button  pays  a 
tender  and  appreciative  tribute  to  the  memory  of  his  friend 
and  comrade,  Corp.  Elmer  Bragg.  It  is  noticeable,  in 
deed,  that  whenever  Corporal  Bragg  is  mentioned  in  the 
diaries  and  letters  of  his  comrades-in-arms  it  is  in  terms 
of  the  deepest  respect.  His  life  was  only  too  brief,  as 
numbered  by  years,  yet  who  can  measure  the  influence 
wrought  by  the  strength  of  character  which  he  ever  dis 
played,  even  under  the  most  trying  circumstances,  or  by 
the  Christian  fortitude  with  which  he  endured  the  terrible 


SERGT.  HENRY  J.  BOOTHBY,  Co.  D.  CORP.  EDWARD  D.  LATHROP,  Co.  D. 


f 

I 


FRANK  H.  KENNARD,  Co.  D.  GEORGE  WEEKS,  Co.  D. 


BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCHES.  667 

sufferings  that  filled  the  last  three  months  of  his  earthly 
pilgrimage.  Death  does  not  end  all ;  and  the  world  is 
better  for  the  young  hero  who  lived  so  well  and  perished 
so  nobly. 


LEWIS    BROCKLEBANK. 

Among  the  many  Plainfield  boys  who  helped  to  swell 
the  ranks  of  Company  E  in  the  Ninth  regiment,  was 
Comrade  Lewis  Brocklebank.  He  was  the  son  of  Daniel 
and  Lois  D.  (Heath)  Brocklebank,  and  was  born  May 
10,  1845.  He  was  with  the  regiment  during  its  entire 
term  of  service,  and  was  appointed  corporal  of  Company 
E,  February  i,  1865.  After  the  close  of  the  war  he 
returned  to  his  home  in  Plainfield,  and  followed  the 
occupation  of  farming.  In  1885  he  removed  to  Newport, 
where  he  died  October  28,  1889,  of  bronchial  and 
catarrhal  trouble,  leaving  a  widow,  born  Miss  Belle  Wil- 
ber,  but  no  children.  He  was  a  loyal  member  of  Post 
William  H.  Tracy,  of  Windsor,  Vt.  Though  quiet  and 
unassuming  in  manner,  Comrade  Brocklebank  had  made 
many  friends  at  Newport,  and  resolutions  commendatory 
of  his  character  as  a  soldier  and  citizen  were  spread 
upon  the  records  of  the  local  G.  A.  R.  post. 


WILLIAM    IDE    BROWN. 

William  Ide  Brown,  the  son  of  John  S.  and  Deborah 
(Ide)  Brown,  was  born  in  Attleborough,  Mass.,  August 
27,  1839.  I*1  ^43  the  family  removed  to  Fisherville 
(now  Penacook),  N.  H.,  which  was  his  home  from  that 
time.  In  1855  ne  entered  the  New  London  Literary 


668  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE. 

and  Scientific  institution,  and  there  fitted  for  college. 
While  there  he  made  a  public  profession  of  religion,  unit 
ing  with  the  Baptist  church  in  Fisherville,  and  from  that 
time  prosecuted  his  studies  with  the  intention  of  entering 
the  ministry.  Graduating  at  New  London  with  distinc 
tion  in  1858,  he  entered  upon  his  collegiate  course  at 
Brown  university,  Providence,  R.  I.  His  rank  there  as 
a  scholar  was  above  the  average,  although  he  devoted 
more  than  the  ordinary  time  to  literary  pursuits  and  to 
general  reading  outside  the  prescribed  collegiate  course. 
Among  his  fellow-students  he  won  an  enviable  reputa 
tion  as  a  genial  companion  and  self-sacrificing  friend, 
and  during  his  last  year  he  was  honored  with  the  per 
petual  presidency  of  his  class. 

In  the  early  summer  of  1862  he  left  Providence,  his 
collegiate  course  completed — save  the  graduating  exer 
cises — with  the  intention  of  entering  upon  a  theological 
course  at  Newton,  Mass.  About  this  date,  writing  of 
friends  in  the  service,  he  says, — "I  wish  I  could  have 
the  results  in  my  character  of  such  experience.  That  is 
what  will  toughen — will  develop — will  strain  every 
energy  of  being — will  make  a  man  more  a  man.  There 
is  something  so  noble  in  this  absorbing  of  little,  selfish 
interests  in  one  great  one.  Before  a  man  can  sincerely 
and  intelligently  give  himself  a  ready  sacrifice  to  his 
country,  his  whole  nature  must  pass  through  an  ordeal 
that  cannot  but  raise  him  in  the  scale  of  being.  I  do  not 
mean  that  a  patriot  will  continue  long  to  balance  his  own 
interests  and  his  country's  before  he  will  decide  for  the 
latter,  but  that  true  patriotism  is  something  more  than 
mere  impulse,  mere  ignorance  of  the  cost,  mere  indiffer 
ence — it  is  the  result  of  a  rational,  settled  conviction  that 
the  country  needs  great  sacrifice  and  is  worthy  of  it." 


BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCHES.  669 

.  The  call  for  volunteers  in  the  summer  of  1862  was 
answered  by  him,  and  he  immediately  deferred  the 
sacred  duty  of  preaching  Christ  for  what  seemed  to  him 
the  more  sacred  duty  of  defending  the  imperilled  liberties 
of  the  nation.  It  was  duty  alone  which  impelled  him  to 
forsake  the  church  for  the  camp.  He  had  no  fondness, 
no  natural  aptitude  for  a  soldier's  life.  But  he  saw  that 
certain  vital  principles  of  our  free  institutions  were  at 
stake,  and  he  seized  the  sword  with  alacrity  and  wielded 
it  manfully  until  death  released  him  from  the  claims  of 
duty.  His  character  as  a  soldier  was  in  consonance 
with  the  motives  which  led  him  to  take  up  arms  and  his 
natural  preference  for  a  quiet  life.  He  lacked  that  dash 
and  brilliancy  which  are  essential  to  the  popular  ideal 
of  a  military  leader.  But  wherever  duty  called  him  he 
was  ready  to  go — whatever  duty  bade  him  do  was  done 
promptly  and  well. 

Regarding  the  Emancipation  Proclamation  he  writes, — 
"I  still  hold  that  the  enforcement  of  the  Constitution  is 
the  direct  object  for  which  we  contend,  but  I  should  feel 
that  peace  would  be  premature  if  it  should  leave  the 
slavery  question  as  it  now  is.  I  should  regard  it  as  a 
calamity  if  the  armed  violence  that  threatens  the  Consti 
tution  should  be  removed  without  removing  the  under 
lying  cause.  I  hope  we  are  now  doing  the  fighting  for 
centuries  to  come."  And  again,  from  another  letter,  as 
indicative  of  his  spirit, — "  No  one  would  more  gladly 
welcome  an  unconditional  surrender  on  the  part  of  the 
Confederacy  than  I  would ;  but  better  a  few  more  lives 
should  be  sacrificed  than  that  the  past  sacrifice  should  be 
in  vain.  The  length  of  life  is  not  determined  by  our 
years,  but  by  what  we  do.  Death  on  the  battle-field, 
with  all  its  horrors,  is  preferable  to  slavery  to  unjust 


670  NINTH  NE  W  HA MPSHIRE. 

principles — a  short  life  of  freedom  and  honor  better  than 
a  long  one  of  servitude  and  disgrace." 

After  the  Battle  of  Antietam  he  writes, — "  Many  a 
time  during  the  past  year,  under  the  influence  of  excite 
ment  and  inspiring  music,  I  have  thought  I  could  march 
with  fortitude  up  to  the  cannon's  mouth,  but  such  feel 
ings  under  such  circumstances  are  not  to  be  trusted. 
On  the  battle-field  there  is  no  music  but  the  roar  of 
cannons,  the  hissing  of  shells,  and  the  hum  of  bullets. 
There  is  nothing  very  inspiriting  about  this,  I  assure 
you.  One  must  then  draw  upon  the  courage  of  princi 
ple,  it  must  be  the  result  of  careful  counting  of  the  cost 
and  a  determination  to  meet  the  worst,  and  if  it  does  not 
come,  to  count  it  all  as  so  much  gain, — as  so  much  more 
than  was  to  be  expected."  And  again,  while  in  front  of 
Petersburg, — "  I  have  full  as  strong  a  desire  to  resume 
my  studies  as  I  had  one  year  ago,  but  I  cannot  leave 
honorably  while  the  campaign  lasts.  I  will  see  the  war 
through  before  I  think  of  any  other  duty." 

Comrade  Brown  was  commissioned  second  lieutenant 
in  Company  K,  August  10,  1862,  which  company  he 
assisted  in  recruiting.  On  March  i,  1863,  he  was  pro 
moted  to  be  first  lieutenant,  and  transferred  to  Com 
pany  B.  On  November  i,  1863,  he  was  commissioned 
as  adjutant,  a  position  for  which  he  was  well  fitted  and 
which  he  held  while  he  remained  with  the  regiment. 
His  service  with  the  Ninth  New  Hampshire  was  con 
tinuous  from  the  date  of  its  muster-in  until  the  fall  of 
1864,  when,  on  the  organization  of  the  Eighteenth  regi 
ment,  he  was  tendered  the  position  of  major,  his  com 
mission  dating  from  October  13,  1864. 

Major  Brown  was  killed  in  action  at  Fort  Stedman, 
in  front  of  Petersburg,  Va.,  March  29,  1865,  and  his 


BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCHES.  671 

remains  were  interred  in  Woodlawn  cemetery,  at  his 
home,  April  7,  1865.  His  life  was  among  the  last  sacri 
ficed  by  the  state  in  the  Civil  War,  and  his  memory  will 
be  held  in  grateful  remembrance  by  the  patriotic  citizens 
of  New  Hampshire. 


FRANKLIN  J.   BURNHAM. 

Franklin  James  Burnham  was  born  December  31,  1842, 
at  Norwich,  Vt.  His  parents,  James  and  Amelia  (Whit 
man)  Burnham,  were  both  descendants  of  English  emi 
grants  who  settled  in  Massachusetts  in  the  seventeenth 
century.  William  Whitman,  his  mother's  father,  was  a 
soldier  of  the  Revolution,  having  served  in  a  Massachu 
setts  battalion  during  the  later  years  of  that  war.  James 
Burnham  had  been  reared  on  a  farm  in  Hanover,  N.  H., 
and  his  wife  on  one  in  Pomfret,  Vt.  James  had  made 
ready  a  pleasant  abode  of  the  same  character  among  the 
Norwich  hills  before  his  marriage.  Upon  the  happening 
of  that  event  he  and  his  bride  at  once  took  possession, 
and  it  continued  to  be  their  home  for  the  remainder  of 
their  lives,  and  was  left  to  the  youngest  son,  by  whom  it 
is  still  occupied.  They  were  worthy  representatives  of 
their  class,  and  their  children  were  carefully  trained  and 
instructed  in  the  practical  virtues  and  robust  Christianity 
and  patriotism  for  which  the  New  England  of  their  day 
was  noted. 

The  subject  of  this  sketch  was  their  first-born.  As  a 
boy  he  rendered  unusually  efficient  service  on  the  farm 
in  summer,  and  in  winter  attended  the  "  district"  school, 
until  at  fifteen  he  had  completed  its  course  of  study. 
During  the  next  two  winters  he  was  one  of  a  small  class 
taught  by  a  retired  clergyman  at  the  neighboring  village. 


6;  2  NINTH  NE  W  HAMPSHIRE. 

In  the  fall  of  1860  he  entered  Kimball  Union  academy  at 
Meriden,  was  graduated  at  that  institution  in  July,  1862, 
and  planned  entering  Dartmouth  at  the  beginning  of  the 
next  college  year.  Touched,  however,  by  the  wave  of 
patriotic  fervor  and  devotion  that  swept  over  the  North  in 
response  to  the  call  of  President  Lincoln  after  the  disas 
ters  of  the  Peninsular  campaign,  he  with  seven  class 
mates  and  several  from  other  classes,  joined  a  company 
then  being  recruited  at  Lebanon  for  the  Ninth  regiment, 
which  became  Company  E  in  that  organization.  At 
first  his  parents  withheld  their  consent  to  this  step,  but  he 
pleaded  the  nation's  need,  and  his  own  sense  of  duty  to 
aid  in  her  defence,  so  forcibly  as  to  eventually  win  their 
approval  and  blessing. 

His  position  during  the  first  four  months  of  his  term  of 
service  was  that  of  private  "  in  the  rear  rank."  At  the 
Battle  of  Fredericksburg  several  of  the  color  guard  were 
killed  or  wounded,  and  a  call  was  made  for  volunteers  to 
take  their  places,  and  he  was  one  of  those  who  offered 
themselves  and  was  accepted.  Soon  after  this  he  was 
made  a  corporal,  and  regularly  detailed  as  a  member  of 
the  guard.  He  continued  on  duty  with  the  colors  until 
April,  1864,  when  he  was  given  a  warrant  as  sergeant 
and  resumed  duty  with  his  company.  Up  to  that  time  he 
had  been  continuously  present  for  duty  except  about  four 
months  in  the  fall  of  1863.  He  was  one  of  the  many 
members  of  the  regiment  who  contracted  malarial  fever 
in  the  Mississippi  campaign,  and  on  the  return  of  the 
command  to  Kentucky,  in  the  latter  part  of  August,  he 
was  placed  in  a  hospital  at  Covington.  His  illness  was 
severe,  and  it  was  nearly  two  months  before  he  was 
strong  enough  to  be  transferred  to  Camp  Dennison,  Ohio, 
then  occupied  chiefly  by  convalescents.  After  a  sojourn 


LIEUT.  FRANKLIN  J.  BURNHAM,  Co.  K. 


BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCHES.  673 

there  of  a  couple  of  months  he  was  assigned  to  the 
Invalid  corps,  and  with  others  sent  to  Cincinnati  for 
organization  as  a  company  of  the  First  battalion  of  the 
corps.  To  be  corporal  of  the  guard  for  the  remainder  of 
his  military  life  was  too  dismal  a  prospect  altogether, 
so  he  deserted  at  the  first  opportunity  and  rejoined  the 
regiment,  which  was  then  scattered  along  the  Kentucky 
Central  railroad,  Company  E  being  at  Riser's  Station. 

In  July,  1864,  he  was  made  first  sergeant,  and  was 
commissioned  second  lieutenant  in  November  following, 
and  as  first  lieutenant  February  i,  1865,  being  in  com 
mand  of  his  company  from  October,  1864,  until  the  regi 
ment  was  disbanded  at  Concord  in  June,  1865.  He  was 
one  of  the  very  few  members  of  the  regiment  that  par 
ticipated  in  every  battle  in  which  it  was  engaged. 
Although  slightly  wounded  on  three  occasions  during 
the  siege  of  Petersburg,  his  injuries  were  not  sufficient  to 
require  him  to  leave  his  command.  He  was  fleet  of  foot, 
and  to  this  fact  owed  his  escape  from  capture,  if  not 
death,  at  Spottsylvania  on  May  12,  Petersburg  Mine, 
July  30,  and  Poplar  Grove  church,  September  30,  1864. 
He  regards  as  perhaps  his  most  difficult  and  trying  expe 
rience,  his  service  as  one  of  the  volunteer  detail  that,  at 
Spottsylvania,  on  the  night  of  May  13  crept  out  between 
the  lines  and  close  up  to  the  Confederate  pickets,  and 
found  and  brought  in  nearly  a  score  of  wounded  com 
rades,  who  lay  where  they  had  fallen  on  the  morning  of 
the  J2th;  and  on  the  night  of  the  I4th  went  out  again, 
and  brought  in  nearly  forty  bodies  of  the  slain. 

On  his  return  to  civil  life  he  determined  to  begin  where 
he  left  off  in  1862.  With  his  classmate  at  the  academy 
and  comrade  in  the  field,  Capt.  O.  D.  Robinson,  he 


674  NINTH  NE  W  HAMPSHIRE. 

entered  Dartmouth,  and  pursued  for  the  next  four  years 
the  regular  course  of  study  in  the  classical  department, 
graduating  with  the  class  of  1869.  The  next  year  he 
spent  at  Littleton,  as  principal  of  the  high  school  in  that 
place.  Declining  an  offer  of  this  position  for  another 
year,  he  went  to  Chicago,  and  began  the  study  of  law  in 
the  office  of  Hon.  W.  C.  Goudy,  and  on  the  commence 
ment  of  the  school  year  joined  the  law  class  connected 
with  Chicago  university.  From  that  institution  he 
received  a  diploma  and  the  degree  of  LL.  B.  in  July, 
1871.  About  the  same  time  he  was  admitted  to  the  bar 
by  the  supreme  court  of  Illinois.  In  company  with  a 
classmate  in  the  law  school  he  secured  an  office  adjoin 
ing  that  of  a  friendly  city  justice,  and  hung  out  a  sign 
bearing  the  legend,  "  Burnham  &  Willard,  Attorneys 
at  Law."  In  the  course  of  a  few  weeks  Mr.  Willard 
retired  from  the  firm  to  accept  a  promising  offer  in 
another  calling,  and  the  remaining  member  continued 
the  business  single-handed.  What  might  have  been  the 
result  of  this  venture  will  never  be  known,  for  the  famous 
kick  of  Mrs.  O'Leary's  cow,  that  started  the  great  con 
flagration  of  October,  1871,  cut  short  its  history.  Its 
proprietor  saw  it  end  in  smoke  with  a  sigh  of  relief. 
Within  a  few  days  he  secured  employment  with  the 
Relief  and  Aid  Society  which  took  charge  of  the  distri 
bution  of  the  immense  contributions  in  aid  of  the  thousands 
left  homeless  and  destitute  by  the  fire.  For  this  work 
his  military  training  proved  an  excellent  preparation. 
His  executive  ability  was  soon  recognized,  and  he  was 
rapidly  promoted  and  finally  made  superintendent  of  the 
distribution  of  aid  in  the  northern  division  of  the  city,  and 
filled  the  position  successfully  until  the  conclusion  of  the 
work  in  April,  1872. 


BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCHES.  675 

The  Northern  Pacific  railroad  had  then  just  been  com 
pleted  to  the  western  boundary  of  Minnesota,  opening 
for  settlement  the  famous  valley  of  the  Red  river  of  the 
North.  Some  of  his  acquaintances  were  about  to  locate 
at  Glyndon,  ten  miles  east  of  that  river  and  the  junction 
point  of  the  Northern  Pacific  with  one  of  the  lines  of  what 
is  now  the  Great  Northern  system.  Joining  them,  he 
became  one  of  the  first  settlers  of  this  place.  He 
remained  there  three  years,  practising  his  profession  and 
devoting  his  spare  time  to  various  business  enterprises. 
In  1875  he  removed  to  Moorhead,  on  the  Red  river,  the 
capital  and  principal  town  of  Clay  county,  Minnesota. 
This  is  still  his  home.  It  is  now  a  thriving  city  of  3,500 
population.  He  has  been  successful  in  his  profession, 
and  prominent  in  other  business.  In  1881  he  helped 
organize  the  First  National  bank  of  Moorhead,  and  was 
its  first  vice-president.  He  succeeded  to  its  presidency 
in  1882,  and  has  held  that  position  to  the  present  time. 
He  has  filled  with  credit  several  municipal  and  county 
offices,  was  for  nine  years  a  member  of  the  Moorhead 
board  of  education,  and  has  been  continuously  an  active 
promoter  of  the  educational,  moral,  and  religious  inter 
ests  of  the  community.  He  married,  in  1873,  Miss  Harriet 
F.  Laughton,  of  Chicago,  a  lady  who  has  contributed  in 
no  small  degree  to  her  husband's  success.  Four  children 
have  been  born  to  them,  of  whom  two  sons  and  a  daugh 
ter  survive.  Comrade  Burnham's  first  ballot  was  cast  in 
1864  for  Abraham  Lincoln,  at  the  regimental  polls  before 
Petersburg,  and  he  has  ever  since  been  an  adherent  of 
the  Republican  party.  He  is  a  member  of  the  Grand 
Army  and  of  the  Loyal  legion,  and  his  love  for  the  old 
flag  and  the  comrades  with  whom  he  followed  it  through 
three  long  but  glorious  years,  has  suffered  no  abatement. 


NINTH  NE  W  HAMPSHIRE. 


GEORGE    H.   CHANDLER. 

George  Henry  Chandler,  son  of  the  late  Nathan  S. 
and  Mary  A.  Chandler,  was  born  in  Concord,  August  4, 
1839.  His  education  was  obtained  in  the  city  schools, 
and  at  Dartmouth  college,  from  which  institution  he 
graduated  in  the  class  of  1860.  At  the  close  of  his  col 
lege  course  he  entered  the  law  office  of  his  brother, 
William  E.  Chandler,  of  Concord,  with  whom  he  read 
law  until  August,  1862,  also  holding  the  position  of 
deputy  secretary  of  state  from  June,  1861,  until  that 
time. 

On  the  i8th  of  August,  1862,  he  became  adjutant 
of  the  Ninth  New  Hampshire,  and  on  October  u,  1863, 
was  promoted  to  the  rank  of  major.  In  the  Battle  of 
Spottsylvania,  May  12,  1864,  Major  Chandler,  while 
gallantly  leading  his  regiment  across  the  famous  "  bloody 
angle,"  received  a  musket  ball  through  the  flesh  of  his 
right  thigh,  but  rejoined  his  command  in  the  latter  part 
of  August.  In  November  following,  Major  Chandler 
was  made  president  of  a  court-martial  at  Washington, 
D.  C.,  and  after  that,  was  detailed  to  aid  the  navy 
department  in  some  investigations  at  Philadelphia. 

In  April,  1865,  he  returned  to  his  regiment  with  the 
rank  of  lieutenant-colonel,  and  with  it  was  mustered  out 
of  the  service  shortly  afterwards.  Immediately  there 
after  he  resumed  his  legal  studies  at  the  Harvard  law 
school,  from  which  he  received  the  degree  of  LL.  B.  in 
1867.  Prior  to  taking  his  degree,  however,  he  was 
appointed  clerk  of  a  commission  at  Washington,  D.  C., 
to  codify  the  United  States  laws,  and  in  January,  1867, 
went  to  England  with  Judge  Isaac  F.  Redfield  as  junior 
counsel  in  some  United  States  government  causes  for 


BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCHES.  677 

the  recovery  of  Confederate  property  abroad,  which  were 
then  in  suit. 

Immediately  after  returning  from  Europe  he  took  up  his 
residence  in  Baltimore,  Md.,  where  he  ever  afterwards 
made  his  home,  and  began  an  honorable  and  successful 
professional  career.  He  was  a  member  of  Wilson  post, 
G.  A.  R.,  of  Baltimore,  one  of  the  largest  Grand  Army 
posts  in  the  South. 

Major  Chandler  married  Elvira  S.  Coffin,  eldest 
daughter  of  the  late  Samuel  S.  Coffin,  of  Concord, 
December  29,  1870.  She  died  November  21,  1875, 
leaving  three  children,  only  one  of  whom  survives,  a 
daughter,  Kate.  In  the  summer  of  1883,  Major  Chandler 
was  summoned  to  Concord  by  the  illness  of  his  mother, 
and  spent  several  weeks  in  ministering  to  her  wants 
before  her  death,  which  occurred  July  14.  Just  a  week 
after  the  funeral  of  his  mother,  while  visiting  his  brother, 
John  K.  Chandler,  of  Boscawen,  he  had  a  severe  attack 
of  neuralgia  of  the  heart  and  congestion  of  the  brain, 
from  which  he  gradually  failed  until  death  ensued,  on 
August  12. 

Major  George  H.  Chandler  was  a  most  genial  com 
panion,  a  courteous  and  entertaining  gentleman,  a  loyal 
and  patriotic  man,  and  a  devoted  friend,  husband,  and 
father.  At  his  funeral,  which  was  held  in  the  Unitarian 
church  at  Concord,  the  Rev.  Dr.  Little  of  Chicago,  a 
college  classmate  and  close  friend  of  the  deceased,  paid 
a  tender  and  heartfelt  tribute  to  his  fidelity  as  a  student, 
to  his  ardent  patriotism  in  the  War  of  the  Rebellion,  and 
to  his  fortitude  and  patient  endurance  under  the  severe 
wound  he  sustained  in  defence  of  the  country  and  flag  he 
so  dearly  loved. 


678  NINTH  NE  W  HAMPSHIRE. 

GEORGE  A.  CHASE. 

George  A.  Chase  was  a  native  of  Newport,  and  one 
of  the  large  number  of  patriotic  young  men  enlisted  by 
Captain  Cooper  in  Company  K.  His  own  words  most 
fitly  express  the  nice  sense  of  honor  and  patriotism  which 
led  him  to  enter  the  service  of  his  country.  He  writes, — 
"I  wish  I  could  send  you  something  worthy  of  myself 
to  put  in  the  history  of  the  grand  old  Ninth.  I  can 
simply  say  I  enlisted  to  put  down  the  Rebellion,  and 
tried  to  do  my  duty  while  in  the  service.  I  was  wounded 
at  the  Battle  of  Fredericksburg,  was  discharged,  went 
home,  and  enlisted  again,  a  few  months  later,  in  the 
New  Hampshire  Heavy  artillery,  Company  H." 

HENRY   W.    CLARK. 

Henry  W.  Clark,  of  Company  I,  was  born  at  Walpole, 
June  u,  1842.  At  the  age  of  fourteen  years  his  parents 
moved  to  Winchendon,  Mass.,  and  he  was  educated  in 
the  public  schools.  In  1858  he  entered  the  employment 
of  the  Cheshire  Railroad  company  at  Winchendon,  as 
ticket  agent  and  telegraph  operator,  and  remained  in 
that  position  until  his  enlistment  in  1862.  Most  of  the 
time  during  his  three  years  service  in  the  army  he  was 
on  detached  duty  as  chief  clerk  in  the  brigade  quarter 
master's  department,  under  Geo.  A.  Zimmerman,  cap 
tain  and  acting  assistant  quartermaster.  On  his  dis 
charge  from  the  service  in  1865,  he  again  entered  the 
employ  of  the  Cheshire  railroad,  as  general  agent  at 
Boston,  and  remained  there  until  1881,  when  he  resigned 
to  accept  a  position  in  the  office  of  his  uncle,  William  P. 
Clark,  manufacturer  and  wholesale  dealer  in  wooden 


»*"   i 


' 


\ 


HENRY  W.  CLARK,  Co.  I. 


BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCHES.  679 

ware,  at  Winchendon,  Mass.,  where  he  now  resides.  In 
1867  he  joined  Bunker  Hill  lodge  of  Odd  Fellows  at 
Charlestown,  Mass.,  passed  through  the  various  chairs  of 
the  subordinate  lodge,  and  in  1881  was  elected  grand 
master  of  the  grand  lodge  of  Massachusetts.  In  1882  he 
was  elected  grand  representative  to  the  Sovereign  grand 
lodge,  I.  O.  O.  F.,  which  position  he  held  for  two  years. 
He  is  also  a  member  of  Bunker  Hill  encampment,  I.  O. 
O.  F.,  and  of  Paul  Revere  lodge,  Knights  of  Honor. 


HERMON  A.    CLEMENT. 

Hermon  A.  Clement,  of  Company  F,  was  one  of  five 
brothers  who  enlisted  to  help  crush  the  Rebellion.  He 
was  born  in  Lowell,  Mass.,  August  16,  1841,  and  ten 
days  before  reaching  his  majority  enlisted  as  a  private 
in  the  Ninth.  He  was  twice  wounded, — at  the  Battle 
of  Fredericksburg  and  at  the  Mine  explosion  before 
Petersburg,  but  served  until  the  final  mustering-out  of 
the  regiment  in  June,  1865.  Serving  most  faithfully 
under  Captain  Stone,  to  whom  he  was  devotedly  attached, 
young  Clement  was  permitted  to  minister  to  the  needs  of 
the  brave  captain,  when  he  fell  leading  his  regiment  at 
Spottsylvania,  and  to  perform  for  him  the  last  sad  offices. 
Throughout  his  entire  connection  with  the  regiment 
Private  Clement's  service  was  characterized  by  faithful 
performance  of  daily  duty, — one  of  those  who  "  also 
serve  that  only  stand  and  wait." 


SIMEON   A.  CLEMENT. 


Simeon  A.  Clement  was  a  younger  brother  of  Hermon 
A.  Clement.     He  was  born  in  Holderness,  and  at  the 


680  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE. 

age  of  nineteen  enlisted  in  company  with  his  brother. 
He  served  with  the  regiment  up  to  the  engagement  at 
Poplar  Springs  church,  September  30,  1864,  when  he 
was  severely  wounded,  was  captured  on  the  field,  and 
taken  to  Libby  prison.  After  remaining  there  six  weeks, 
he  was  paroled  and  sent  to  Annapolis.  Some  three 
months  later  he  was  sent  to  the  hospital  at  Manchester, 
where  he  remained  until  he  was  discharged,  at  his  own 
request,  in  May,  1865.  Feeling  that  his  days  were  fast 
being  numbered,  the  young  soldier  returned  to  his  home 
at  Centre  Harbor,  and  there,  in  April,  1866,  after  nine 
teen  months  of  patient  suffering,  as  a  result  of  his  wound, 
he  passed  peacefully  away. 


JOHN    B.  COOPER. 

At  Walpole,  in  the  Connecticut  valley,  there  was  born 
in  1842,  a  boy  who  received  the  above  name,  and  who  at 
the  nominal  age  of  twenty-one  years,  though  he  was  real 
ly  but  twenty,  enlisted  in  Company  D,  First  New  Hamp 
shire  volunteers.  After  his  term  of  service  in  that  organ 
ization  had  expired  he  recruited  at  Newport  a  large 
number  of  the  men  who  afterwards  constituted  Company 
K  of  the  Ninth  New  Hampshire  volunteers,  and  the 
youthful  recruiting  officer  was  made  captain  of  the  men 
in  whose  enlistment  he  had  been  so  largely  instru 
mental.  On  the  Saturday  in  August,  1861,  before  he 
left  the  state  on  Monday,  Captain  Cooper  was  married  to 
Mary  O.  Moody  of  Newport.  At  the  Antietam  battle 
he  was  wounded,  and  afterwards  lurloughed,  but  only 
to  rejoin  his  company  and  the  regiment  on  December  13, 
1862,  at  Fredericksburg,  an  hour  before  the  charge  on 
Marye's  heights.  During  the  second  stay  in  Kentucky, 


BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCHES,  68 1 

Captain  Cooper  was  detailed  for  service  as  provost- 
marshal  on  General  Frye's  staff.  His  labor  there  lasted 
from  February  to  June,  1864,  when,  on  the  third  day  of 
the  month,  he  rejoined  his  regiment,  of  which  he  was  in 
command  a  large  part  of  the  time  from  the  Battle  of  the 
Mine  until  the  following  April.  Since  the  war  Captain 
Cooper  has  resided  at  Newport,  with  the  exception  of  one 
year  during  which  he  managed  a  farm  near  Rappahan- 
nock  Station,  Va.  No  citizen  of  the  shire  town  of  Sulli 
van  county  is  held  in  higher  esteem  than  this  officer  of 
the  Ninth  New  Hampshire.  His  careful  judgment  and 
known  sincerity  have  been  frequently  demanded  in  the 
service  of  his  townsmen.  He  has  been  selectman, 
representative,  member  of  constitutional  convention,  and 
now,  as  executive  member  of  the  recently  incorporated 
Newport  water-works,  is  superintending  the  laying  of 
pipes  and  building  of  the  reservoir.  In  1875-6  he  was 
door-keeper  of  the  New  Hampshire  house  of  representa 
tives,  and  served  a  four  years  term  under  President 
Hayes  as  postmaster  of  Newport.  Captain  Cooper  has 
one  son,  Mark  O.,  born  in  1866,  and  living  with  his 
parents. 


CHARLES   D.    COPP. 

Midway  of  Grafton  county,  and  nestling  in  the  shadow 
of  grim  Mount  Moosilauke,  is  the  little  town  of  Warren, 
the  birthplace  of  one  of  the  Ninth's  most  gallant  soldiers, 
Capt.  Charles  Dearborn  Copp.  Though  born  in  a  quiet 
country  town,  Captain  Copp  has  ancestral  claims  that 
run  back  to  King  Eric  of  Sweden  in  the  sixteenth  cen 
tury,  and  is  equally  proud  of  his  descent  from  that  brave 
old  soldier  of  Revolutionary  times,  Gen.  Israel  Putnam. 


68  2  NINTH  NE  W  HA  MPSHIRE. 

When  he  was  five  years  old  his  father  moved  the  family 
to  Nashua,  where  young  Copp  was  in  time  duly  enrolled 
as  an  attendant  of  the  public  schools. 

He  began  selling  the  Boston  daily  papers,  in  connec 
tion  with  the  local  Oasis,  Gazette,  and  Telegraph,  at  the 
age  of  eleven,  and  thereby  gained  the  familiar  cognomen 
which  clung  to  him  for  many  years,  that  of  "  The  News 
boy."  When  he  was  eighteen  he  bought  out  a  paper 
agency,  and  soon  after  a  book  and  stationery  business, 
in  which  he  was  engaged  at  the  breaking  out  of  the 
Rebellion.  In  his  boyhood  days  he  had  been  an  enthu 
siastic  member  of  an  embryo  military  company,  and  in 
later  years  had  been  prominent  in  the  Granite  State 
cadets,  an  independent  military  organization  in  Nashua, 
so  the  country's  call  found  in  him  a  ready  response. 

In  the  spring  of  1862  he  opened  a  recruiting  office  in 
Nashua,  and  in  July,  leaving  his  business  with  a  brother, 
he  went  to  Concord,  where  the  recruits  were  assigned  to 
the  Ninth  regiment.  Here  his  knowledge  of  military 
tactics  was  soon  brought  into  play,  and  he  was  commis 
sioned  as  second  lieutenant  of  Company  C  August  10, 
1862.  Strict  in  discipline,  prompt  to  duty  himself  and 
justly  requiring  the  same  of  his  subordinates,  the  popu 
lar  and  efficient  officer  found  full  scope  for  his  abilities 
while  the  organization  and  drilling  of  the  raw  troops  was 
going  on. 

The  history  of  his  army  life  is  practically  that  of  the 
regiment,  for  he  was  with  it  almost  continuously, — 
through  its  long  marches  in  summer's  heat  and  winter's 
cold,  in  camp  and  bivouac,  in  skirmishes  and  hard 
fought  battles.  Company  C  was  the  color  company 
during  the  term  of  regimental  service,  and  in  it,  through 
two  successive  deeds  of  daring,  the  young  lieutenant  rose 


BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCHES.  683 

to  be  captain.  If  the  color  company  held  the  place  of 
honor,  it  was  equally  the  post  of  danger  and  responsi 
bility,  and  the  command  had  devolved  on  Lieutenant 
Copp  almost  from  the  first,  the  captain  being  absent 
on  detached  duty  and  the  first  lieutenant  so  severely 
wounded  at  Antietam  that  he  never  returned. 

The  special  duty  of  the  color  company  was  the  guard 
ing  of  the  flag.  On  several  occasions,  when  the  color 
bearer  had  been  killed  or  wounded  in  the  heat  of  battle, 
amid  shrieking,  bursting  shells,  singing  bullets,  and  rat 
tling  grape  and  canister,  Lieutenant  Copp  was  the  first  to 
seize  the  fallen  flag,  to  spring  to  the  front  and  lead  the 
men  forward  or  rally  on  a  new  line  to  check  a  retreat. 
Such  was  his  heroic  conduct  at  the  Battle  of  Fredericks- 
burg,  that  he  was  awarded  the  Medal  of  Honor  presented 
by  congress  for  acts  of  special  bravery,  a  decoration  of 
which  he  and  his  comrades  may  be  justly  proud. 

In  July,  1864,  Captain  Copp  was  in  the  hospital  for  a 
few  weeks,  his  health  being  somewhat  broken  by  the 
exposure  and  hard  service  which  the  regiment  had 
undergone,  though  he  was  one  of  the  very  few  officers 
who  received  no  wounds.  Yet  he  had  many  narrow 
escapes,  for  at  South  Mountain  he  was  the  first  man  to 
get  a  touch  of  the  enemy's  fire,  one  bullet  striking  the 
toe  of  his  boot,  while  another  brushed  his  hair  just  over 
the  left  ear.  At  Antietam  a  spent  ball  struck  him  on  the 
arm,  producing  quite  a  sore  spot,  while  at  Petersburg  a 
bullet  struck  a  fence-rail  against  which  his  head  was 
resting,  exactly  in  line  with  his  forehead,  but  did  not 
come  quite  through. 

In  January,  1865,  Captain  Copp  came  home  on  a  short 
leave  of  absence,  during  which  he  was  married  to  Har 
riet  E.  Woods,  of  Lancaster,  Mass.  He  was  mustered 


684  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE. 

out  with  his  company  at  Concord,  June  10,  1865,  and 
just  before  leaving  for  home  was  presented  with  a  gold 
watch,  every  member  of  the  company  contributing  to 
this  token  of  their  good-will  and  esteem.  Returning  to 
his  business  at  Nashua,  Captain  Copp  remained  there 
until  1872,  when  he  sold  out  to  his  brother  and  went  into 
the  furniture  business  with  J.  W.  Howard.  In  April, 
1878,  he  entered  the  employ  of  the  Gibbs  Loom  Harness 
and  Reed  company,  of  Clinton,  Mass.,  as  travelling 
salesman,  visiting  cotton  mills  from  Maine  to  Louisana. 
In  this  business  he  is  now  engaged,  having  in  the  mean 
time  spent  three  years  in  Burlington,  Vt.,  in  the  bobbin 
and  spool  business,  visiting  the  same  trade.  Captain 
Copp  is  a  member  of  the  Congregational  church,  also  of 
the  "  Medal  of  Honor"  legion,  of  the  Massachusetts 
commandery  of  the  Loyal  legion,  of  the  I.  O.  O.  F., 
and  of  the  G.  A.  R.  His  present  home  is  in  Clinton, 
Mass. 


MARTIN    T.    CROWELL. 

4 

November  30,  1893,  there  died  in  Hopkinton,  Martin 
T.  Crowell,  a  member  of  Company  B,  who  enlisted  July 
18,  1862,  at  the  age  of  twenty-one.  He  was  mustered 
in  on  the  day  of  his  enlistment,  and  remained  with  the 
regiment  throughout  its  whole  service,  when  he  returned 
to  his  native  town,  where  he  continued  to  live  till  his 
decease.  For  fifteen  years  he  had  been  in  failing  health, 
suffering  greatly  from  asthma.  He  was  a  member  of 
Putnam  post,  No.  5,  G.  A.  R.,  and  is  survived  by  his 
widow.  It  does  not  appear  that  Comrade  Crowell  lost  a 
day's  service,  either  from  sickness,  wounds,  capture,  or 
furlough. 


ANDREW  CURRIER.  Go.  A. 


JAMES  B.  KIMBALL,  Co.  A. 


GEORGE  W.  BARNARD,  Co.  A. 


BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCHES.  685 

ANDREW    CURRIER. 

Andrew  Currier,  the  subject  of  this  sketch,  a  private 
in  Company  A,  was  born  in  Newton,  N.  H.,  August  5, 
1844.  His  early  life  was  spent  in  his  native  town, 
attending  the  public  schools,  working  on  the  farm,  and 
in  shoemaking.  He  enlisted  July  7,  1862,  and  was 
immediately  mustered  into  service.  He  participated  in 
the  battles  of  South  Mountain,  Antietam,  and  Freder- 
icksburg.  The  winter  following  he  contracted  the 
measles,  which,  with  the  exposure  he  endured,  left  him 
in  feeble  health,  and  he  received  his  discharge  April  27, 
1863,  at  Portsmouth  Grove,  R.  I.  Partially  regaining 
his  health,  he  re-enlisted,  June,  1864,  in  the  Veteran 
Reserve  corps,  joining  the  famous  Black  Horse  cavalry, 
which  comprised  Lincoln's  body-guard,  and  was  doing 
duty  at  the  time  of  the  president's  assassination.  This 
organization  was  the  first  to  surround  Ford's  thea 
tre  on  that  fatal  night.  Receiving  his  discharge  at  the 
close  of  the  war,  he  returned  to  Newton  and  engaged  in 
mercantile  pursuits,  and  later  in  the  manufacture  of 
boots  and  shoes,  in  which  business  he  remains  at  the 
present  writing.  Mr.  Currier  is  a  member  of  C.  R. 
Mudge  post,  No.  114,  G.  A.  R.,  of  Merrimac,  Mass., 
and  of  Twilight  lodge,  I.  O.  O.  F.,  of  Newton. 


NATHAN    GUSHING. 

Private  Nathan  Gushing  was  born  in  Woodstock,  Vt., 
in  1842,  but  afterwards  became  a  resident  of  Plainfield. 
He  enlisted  at  Lebanon  in  the  latter  part  of  July,  1862, 
under  Capt.  Daniel  C.  Buswell.  On  reaching  the  ren 
dezvous  at  Concord,  the  company  was  increased  by  the 


686  NINTH  NE  W  HA MPSHIRE. 

addition  of  about  forty  men  who  had  been  sent  up  from 
Portsmouth,  and  the  complete  organization  became  Com 
pany  E  of  the  Ninth  New  Hampshire.  The  night  the 
regiment  reached  Washington  on  its  way  out,  Private 
Gushing  was  one  of  the  volunteer  guard  who  served  as 
sentinels  while  their  comrades  slept.  At  the  Battle  of 
Antietam,  while  serving  on  special  detail,  he  narrowly 
escaped  capture.  He  served  with  the  regiment  until 
early  in  December,  when  he  was  taken  ill  and  sent  to 
the  hospital,  and  was  finally  discharged  for  disability, 
December  29,  1862. 

LEWIS    DWIGHT    DARLING. 

Lewis  Dwight  Darling  was  a  native  of  Keene,  and 
was  but  eighteen  years  old  when  he  enlisted  as  a  private 
in  Company  I.  He  won  his  promotion  to  corporal  and 
sergeant  by  his  faithful  attention  to  duty,  and  shared  the 
fortunes  of  the  regiment  through  all  the  vicissitudes  it 
•experienced,  participating  in  every  engagement,  from 
South  Mountain  to  the  fall  of  Petersburg.  Sergeant 
Darling  received  a  gunshot  wound  in  the  breast  in  the 
advance  upon  the  enemy  at  Tolopotomoy  Creek,  and 
was  again  wounded  in  the  knee  at  the  explosion  of  the 
Mine,  but  kept  with  the  regiment  until  he  was  finally 
mustered  out  at  the  close  of  the  war. 


ALVAH   R.  DAVIS. 

The  above  named  comrade  was  born  in  West  Charles- 
town,  Vt.,  but  having  taken  up  his  residence  in  Croydon, 
this  state,  and  engaged  in  farming,  he  enlisted  in  August, 
1862,  at  the  age  of  nineteen,  and  became  a  private  of 


BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCHES.  687 

Company  K,  of  the  Ninth.  He  followed  the  fortunes  of 
the  regiment  until  he  was  captured  at  Spottsylvania 
Court-house,  May  12,  1864.  The  next  seven  months 
were  passed  in  rebel  prison-pens,  four  months  at  Ander- 
sonville  and  three  at  Florence.  In  December,  1864,  he 
was  exchanged  and  furloughed,  but  at  the  expiration  of 
his  furlough  was  found  unable  to  perform  duty  in  the 
field,  and  was  ordered  to  the  hospital  at  Annapolis,  Md., 
where  he  remained  until  July,  1865,  when  he  was  able 
to  return  home  and  receive  his  discharge.  Since  that 
time  Comrade  Davis  has  been  engaged  in  various  lines 
of  business  life,  and  has  received  his  share  of  success 
in  each.  Farming,  tanning,  teaming,  have  all  been 
made  to  yield  an  income,  but  now  the  direction  of  a 
flourishing  meat-market  at  Newport  employs  a  large 
portion  of  his  time  and  energy.  In  1866  he  married 
Mary  E.  Thompson  of  Antrim,  by  whom  he  is  the  father 
of  three  children.  The  eldest  of  these,  Emma  J.,  is 
the  wife  of  William  H.  Wright  of  Concord.  The  others, 
George  A.  and  Walter  E.,  reside  at  Newport. 

SANFORD  DINSMORE. 

"  I  enlisted  July  4,  1862,  in  the  town  of  Colebrook. 
where  I  was  born.  John  G.  Lewis  was  the  recruiting 
officer.  I  was  but  seventeen  years  old,  and  the  youngest 
in  the  company  so  far  as  I  know.  We  went  to  Lancas 
ter,  and  stayed  through  July  and  a  part  of  August.  Mr. 
Lewis  got  some  twenty  more  recruits,  and  then  we  went 
to  Concord  and  joined  the  regiment.  Our  squad  was 
made  a  part  of  Company  H,  with  Capt.  C.  W.  Edgerly 
as  our  senior  officer  and  Mr.  Lewis  as  first  lieutenant. 
Our  squad  clubbed  together  and  bought  Lieutenant  Lewis 


688  NINTH  NE  W  HAMPSHIRE. 

a  very  handsome  sword  with  a  belt  and  a  gold  tassel ;  but 
he  would  not  wear  the  tassel,  as  he  thought  it  was  not  suited 
to  his  rank.  I  remember  that  when  we  presented  him  the 
sword  he  shed  tears  and  was  much  affected  at  our  good 
will.  As  my  parents  were  dead,  I  had  chosen  Lieutenant 
Lewis  as  my  guardian,  and  so  was  somewhat  more  in 
timate  with  him  than  the  other  privates  in  our  company. 
He  was  a  grand,  good  man,  and  as  brave  as  a  lion. 

"  From  Concord  I  went  with  the  regiment  to  the  front, 
and  was  with  it  in  the  battles  of  South  Mountain  and 
Antietam.  In  both  of  these  engagements  I  tried  to  do 
my  duty  the  best  that  I  could.  I  was  one  that  volunteered 
to  go  on  the  skirmish  line  at  Antietam,  after  we  crossed 
the  stone  bridge,  and  was  one  of  the  first  to  meet  Long- 
street's  troops  when  they  came  from  Harper's  Ferry.  I 
was  with  the  regiment  up  to  the  time  we  started  for  the 
Rappahannock,  but  on  that  march  I  was  taken  down 
with  diarrhea,  and  being  unable  to  keep  in  the  ranks 
was  left  behind.  When  the  doctor  came  along  and  saw 
how  weak  I  was  he  gave  me  a  written  permit  for  absence, 
and  told  me  to  report  to  my  company  as  soon  as  I  was 
able. 

"  I  followed  the  regiment  as  far  as  Fayetteville,  when 
I  could  go  no  farther.  A  good  woman  took  me  in  and 
cared  for  me  until  a  squad  of  rebel  cavalry  came  along 
and  took  me  prisoner.  Finding  that  I  could  not  walk, 
they  put  me  on  parole,  and  took  away  my  arms.  I  had 
some  queer  adventures  while  I  was  in  the  rebel  lines, 
and  as  they  would  not  let  me  go  back  to  join  my  regi 
ment,  I  had  to  make  my  way  to  Washington  as  best  I 
could.  I  reported  to  the  provost-marshal,  and  was  sent 
to  Camp  Parole  at  Annapolis.  After  being  there  two 
months,  and  seeing  no  prospect  of  being  exchanged,  I 


BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCHES.  689 

and  another  young  fellow  made  up  our  minds  to  break 
our  paroles  and  ship  in  the  navy  for  a  year,  and  then  go 
back  to  the  regiment. 

"  I  was  only  seventeen  years  old,  and  did  not  think  I 
was  doing  anything  wrong  to  the  government,  but  for 
that  act  I  was  marked  on  the  roster  as  a  deserter.  I 
went  to  New  York,  and  on  January  16,  1863,  enlisted  in 
the  navy  for  a  year.  I  was  put  on  the  frigate  Color  ado  > 
was  at  Mobile  during  the  blockade,  and  did  not  get  back 
to  Boston  until  June  4,  1864.  During  my  service  in  the 
navy  I  received  an  injury  to  my  left  knee  that  forever 
disabled  me  for  infantry  service.  I  tried  to  enlist  in  the 
artillery,  but  did  not  pass  muster,  and  so  went  back  to 
my  home.  I  have  an  honorable  discharge  from  the 
navy,  and  am  drawing  a  pension  of  two  dollars  per 
month  on  account  of  the  injury  to  my  knee.  I  do  not 
expect  to  have  a  very  good  record  in  the  history  of  the 
Ninth  New  Hampshire,  but  if  my  old  comrades  can 
know  all  the  circumstances  of  my  service,  I  am  willing 
they  should  judge  how  far  I  came  short  of  doing  my 
duty  to  my  country." 

[After  reading  Comrade  Dinsmore's  statement  of  the 
facts  connected  with  his  apparent  desertion,  as  recorded 
in  the  regimental  roster,  the  Publishing  Committee 
unanimously  decided  to  give  it  a  place  in  the  history, 
that  justice  might  be  done  so  far  as  was  possible  at  this 
late  day. — Editor. ~\ 

NEWELL   T.    BUTTON. 

Newell  Tracy  Button  was  born  in  Claremont,  October 
5,  1840.  There  his  boyhood  days  were  passed,  and  he 
was  a  regular  attendant  at  the  public  schools  and  the 

XLIV 


690  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE. 

academy  until  he  was  seventeen.  The  next  two  years 
he  lived  with  an  uncle  in  Perry,  Ohio.  Work  on  the 
farm  alternated  with  attendance  at  school,  and  in  the 
winter  of  1858-9  he  taught  his  first  term  of  school. 
Here,  too,  he  was  converted,  and  became  connected 
with  the  Baptist  church  in  1858.  Returning  to  Clare- 
mont  in  1859,  ne  went  to  New  London  the  following 
year,  and  in  1861  began  a  regular  course  of  study  at 
the  New  London  Literary  and  Scientific  institution  (now 
Colby  academy). 

When  the  call  for  troops  came  in  1861,  he  greatly 
desired  to  enlist,  but  two  younger  brothers  had  entered 
the  service,  and  the  idea  generally  prevailed  that  the 
Rebellion  would  be  of  short  duration  ;  so  the  student 
devoted  himself  to  his  books.  After  McClellan's  defeat 
came  Lincoln's  call  for  300,000  men,  and  feeling  that 
the  time  had  come  when  he  could  be  of  service,  he  deter 
mined  to  enlist.  Learning  that  a  number  of  students  from 
Kimball  Union  academy,  at  Meriden,  had  enlisted  in  a 
body  at  Lebanon,  he  decided  to  put  his  name  with  theirs  ; 
and  though  all  of  them  were  entire  strangers  to  him  at 
the  time,  he  never  regretted  his  choice  of  companions. 
For  Christian  character,  lofty  aims,  and  pure  patriotism, 
that  little  band  of  student  volunteer  soldiers  could  not  be 
excelled.  His  enlistment  as  private  was  made  at  Leb 
anon,  August  5,  and  that  same  day  the  men  went  to 
Concord.  The  following  day  saw  them  mustered  in  and 
assigned  to  Company  E  of  the  Ninth  regiment. 

For  the  nearly  three  years  following  his  history  was 
that  of  the  regiment.  With  the  exception  of  a  twenty 
days  furlough  in  February,  1865,  he  was  not  absent 
from  its  ranks,  and  excused  from  duty  but  six  days 
on  account  of  sickness.  He  was  on  every  march  the 


BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCHES.  691 

regiment  made,  and  in  every  engagement  of  the  score 
or  more  fought.  He  did  not  see  the  inside  of  a  hos 
pital  as  a  patient,  and  was  never  wounded,  though  his 
clothes  were  pierced  and  he  was  struck  by  spent  balls. 
May  i,  1864,  he  was  promoted  to  be  corporal,  and  de 
tailed  as  color  guard.  Within  two  weeks  he  was  made 
color  corporal,  and  given  the  State  colors  to  carry. 
August  i  he  was  raised  to  the  rank  of  color  sergeant, 
and  took  the  National  colors,  carrying  them  until  Octo 
ber  i,  when  he  was  appointed  acting  sergeant-major, 
and  received  his  commission  as  such  in  February,  1865. 
During  the  five  months  between  May  i  and  September 
30,  1864,  fifteen  different  men  carried  the  other  stand  of 
colors,  and  over  six  hundred  men  were  lost  to  the  regi 
ment,  being  either  killed,  wounded,  or  captured.  Finally 
the  State  colors  were  captured,  with  the  bearer,  in  the 
battle  of  the  latter  date,  at  Poplar  Grove  church,  Va.  ; 
but  Sergeant  Button  brought  out  the  National  colors, 
himself  unscathed,  together  with  the  handful  of  men 
that  remained  to  the  regiment.  When  he  had  taken  the 
flag  its  colors  were  fresh  and  its  folds  unmarred ;  he 
returned  it  stained  with  the  blood  of  heroes,  and  mutely 
witnessing  the  storm  of  lead  and  iron  through  which  it 
had  been  borne  in  the  riddled  and  tattered  fragment 

o 

which  still  clung  to  the  staff.  If  there  is  no  mistake 
Sergeant  Button  was  one  of  two  men  who  saw  all  the 
service  of  the  Ninth  regiment  during  the  last  three  years 
of  the  war  in  the  land  of  "  Bixie."  A  kind  Providence 
cared  for  him  in  all  the  exigencies  of  camp,  march,  and 
battle,  and  brought  him  again  to  Concord  in  June,  1865, 
to  be  mustered  out  with  the  regiment. 

After  his  return  from  the  war  Sergeant  Button  at  once 
resumed   his   studies   at  New    London,   and   as    he   had 


692  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE. 

decided  to  make  the  ministry  his  vocation,  the  following 
year  saw  him  entered  at  Brown  university,  from  which 
he  graduated  in  1870.  Immediately  continuing  his 
preparation  for  the  ministry  at  Newton  Theological 
seminary,  he  graduated  from  this  institution  in  1873. 
August  19  of  the  same  year  he  was  ordained  to  the  min 
istry  as  pastor  of  the  Baptist  church  in  Warren,  Me. 
He  remained  with  his  first  charge  ten  years.  In  August, 
1883,  he  became  pastor  of  the  Baptist  church  in  Houlton, 
Me.,  where  another  ten  years  pastorate  bore  witness  to 
the  faithfulness  of  the  shepherd.  August,  1893,  saw  him 
settled  with  the  Baptist  church  in  Fail-field,  Me.,  where 
he  has  since  made  his  home.  In  his  chosen  vocation  he 
has  borne  the  colors  of  the  great  Captain  just  as  faith 
fully  as  he  raised  the  standard  of  his  state  and  country  in 
the  cause  of  Freedom,  and  the  same  kind  Providence  has 
abundantly  blessed  his  labors.  For  twenty-three  years 
he  has  been  a  trustee  of  the  Maine  Baptist  Missionary 
convention.  In  1883  he  was  made  trustee  of  Ricker 
Classical  institute,  at  Houlton,  and  in  1889  trustee  of 
Colby  university,  at  Waterville,  Me.,  in  both  of  which 
positions  he  still  serves  most  acceptably.  In  all  that  per 
tains  to  the  religious  and  educational  affairs  of  the  Bap 
tist  denomination  in  his  adopted  state,  Comrade  Button 
has  had  a  growing  interest,  service,  and  usefulness. 


MINOT    ELLIS. 

A  native  of  Keene,  and  a  resident  of  that  bustling 
town  during  the  years  of  his  minority,  it  was  but  natural 
that  Minot  Ellis  should  be  numbered  among  the  young 
men  who  were  so  largely  in  proportion  among  the  mem 
bers  of  Company  I.  He  was  mustered  in,  and  out,  with 


BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCHES.  693 

the  regiment ;  never  had  a  furlough  or  was  sick  in  the 
hospital,  and  never  was  detailed  away  from  the  regi 
ment.  Though  participating  in  every  battle  save  one, 
when  he  was  sick  in  camp,  Comrade  Ellis  escaped  in 
jury,  though  on  one  occasion  one  man  on  his  right  and 
two  on  his  left  were  shot  down  at  the  same  time.  Once 
he  was  taken  prisoner,  but  managed  to  escape  to  the 
Union  lines.  He  was  promoted  to  be  corporal  Nov 
ember  i,  1864.  Some  one  asked  Corporal  Ellis  once  if 
he  ever  ''took"  anything  while  he  was  in  the  army. 
*'No,  sir;"  was  the  ready  reply,  "I  never  took  anything 
but  top  rails,  or  whatever  I  could  put  my  hands  on." 


GEORGE    W.    EVERETT. 

On  November  19,  1819,  there  was  born  at  New  Lon 
don,  amid  the  hills  and  mountains  of  western  New 
Hampshire,  a  boy  who  was  destined  to  be  conspicuous 
in  the  history  of  his  town  and  state  because  of  his  native 
ability  and  later  acquirements,  which  gave  him  promi 
nence  in  military  as  well  as  in  civil  life.  His  family 
name,  Everett,  is  a  familiar  one  in  American  history,  and 
its  representatives  in  New  London  had  been  highly  re 
spected,  even  from  the  very  settlement  of  that  town  which 
has  been  so  distinguished  for  good  and  patriotic  citizens 
of  commanding  influence  in  the  councils  of  the  Granite 
state.  To  the  lad  then  born  his  parents  gave  the  name 
George,  and  the  best  education  possible  in  the  schools  of 
the  town  and  at  the  New  London  academy.  He  then 
studied  law  with  Walter  P.  Flanders,  Esq.,  and  prac 
tised  his  profession  in  his  native  town,  which  he  repre 
sented  in  the  state  legislature.  He  had  also  been  solici 
tor  for  the  county  of  Merrimack.  He  left  all  the  emolu- 


694  NIN TH  NE IV  HA MPSHIRE. 

ments  of  his  profession  to  accept  the  majority  of  the 
Ninth  New  Hampshire  volunteers,  to  which  he  was  com 
missioned  August  26,  1862.  On  the  return  from  the 
Mississippi  campaign  he  was  seriously  ill,  and  died 
August  27,  1863,  at  Cincinnati,  Ohio,  from  poison  admin 
istered  by  his  body-servant,  a  young  darkey,  who  was 
afterwards  imprisoned  for  his  crime.  Major  Everett  left 
a  widow  (born  Ellen  Frances  Lane,  of  Gloucester, 
Mass.,)  and  three  children:  George  W.  Everett,  now  of 
Danvers,  Mass;  Mrs.  George  M.  Peabody,  also  of  Dan- 
vers,  and  John  R.  Everett  of  Rockport,  Mass. 


ENOCH    Q.    FELLOWS. 

Enoch  Q.  Fellows,  the  Ninth  New  Hampshire's  first 
colonel,  was  a  native  of  Sandwich,  and  was  born  June 
20,  1825,  the  son  of  John  and  Mary  J.  Fellows.  His 
maternal  great-grandfather,  Aaron  Quimby,  was  a  cap 
tain  in  the  Revolution,  and  ensign  in  an  alarm  company 
in  1787,  with  the  rank  of  major.  His  paternal  grand 
father,  Stephen  Fellows,  was  a  butcher,  and  of  Fremont 
(then  Poplin),  but  when,  during  the  Revolution,  the 
rumor  came  that  the  British  were  landing  at  Hampton 
beach,  he  said  he  "  run  forty  bullets  as  quick  as  ever 
forty  bullets  were  run,"  and  taking  his  gun,  mounted  his 
horse  and  started  for  the  beach.  Though  the  rumor 
proved  to  be  only  a  rumor,  yet  the  patriot  farmer  had 
manifested  both  zeal  and  courage. 

Until  he  was  seventeen  the  future  colonel  attended  the 
district  schools  and  town  academy  when  not  at  work,  but 
he  had  early  determined  to  obtain  a  higher  education, 
and  step  by  step  he  earned  his  way  until  he  finally 
secured  an  appointment  at  West  Point.  Entering  on  his 


BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCHES.  695 

nineteenth  birthday,  he  at  once  took  a  good  standing  in 
his  class,  ranking  eighth  at  the  time  of  his  voluntary 
resignation  in  1846,  when,  at  the  urgent  solicitation  of  his 
father,  he  returned  to  his  home  at  Sandwich.  Among 
his  schoolfellows  at  West  Point  were  his  later  com 
rades-in-arms,  Generals  Burnside,  McClellan,  Couch, 
Reno,  and  "  Stonewall "  Jackson.  Most  of  the  time  till 
1854  ne  worked  at  home,  holding  several  high  positions 
in  the  state  militia,  and  for  four  years  serving  as  door 
keeper  in  the  New  Hampshire  senate. 

From  1854  to  1857  he  held  the  position  of  inspector  in 
the  Boston  custom  house,  and  the  next  four  years  were 
passed  in  Sandwich.  In  April,  1861,  the  moment  he 
saw  President  Lincoln's  proclamation  calling  for  seventy- 
five  thousand  troops,  he  offered  his  services  to  the  adju 
tant-general  of  the  state,  and  was  immediately  ordered 
to  report  at  Concord.  He  was  at  once  employed  in 
drilling  recruits,  and  assisted  in  the  organization  of  the 
First  regiment,  and  was  offered  a  captaincy  in  it.  This 
he  declined,  though  he  immediately  enlisted  as  a  private, 
then  was  commissioned  as  first  lieutenant  of  Company 
K,  and  was  detailed  as  adjutant.  He  was  mustered  out 
with  the  regiment  August  9,  1861,  and  the  following 
day  was  commissioned  colonel  of  the  Third  regiment, 
serving  as  ranking  colonel  in  Sherman's  expedition 
down  the  coast,  in  which  the  regiment  participated.  In 
the  winter  of  1861-2  he  was  stationed,  with  his  regiment, 
at  Hilton  Head,  S.  C.,  and  held  the  position  of  first 
commandant  of  the  post. 

When  General  Sherman  was  relieved  in  the  spring  of 
1862,  Colonel  Fellows  mentioned  to  him  that  he  had 
been  in  the  service  continuously  for  a  year,  and  had  been 
intending  to  ask  for  a  leave  of  absence  General  Sher- 


696  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE. 

man  told  him  to  make  an  application  to  his  successor 
and  he  would  indorse  it,  which  he  did  in  very  flattering 
terms ;  and  the  leave  of  absence  was  speedily  forth 
coming.  Just  then,  however,  a  movement  was  made  on 
Fort  Pulaski,  and  re-enforcements  were  needed  atEdisto 
island,  near  Charlestown.  The  Third  regiment  was 
recommended  for  the  position,  so  Colonel  Fellows  wrote 
to  General  Benham  that  if  he  could  be  of  any  assistance 
he  would  defer  his  leave  of  absence.  General  Benham 
accepted  his  offer,  and  put  him  in  command  of  all  the 
troops  at  Edisto.  After  Pulaski  had  fallen  Colonel  Fel 
lows  was  relieved  and  came  home.  While  at  home  he 
was  requested  by  the  governor  to  take  command  of  the 
Niuth  regiment,  which  was  being  organized  at  Concord, 
and  needed  the  services  of  a  skilled  veteran  like  Colonel 
Fellows  ;  so  on  the  26th  of  June,  1862,  he  resigned  from 
the  Third  and  took  command  of  the  Ninth. 

It  was  under  his  leadership  that  the  regiment  won  its 
appellation  of  the  "Bloody  Ninth."  In  November,  after 
the  Battle  of  Antietam,  Colonel  Fellows  resigned  rather 
than  ask  for  another  leave  of  absence.  The  regiment 
was  then  marching  in  Virginia,  and  the  cold  rains  and 
occasional  snows  brought  on  the  neuralgia  so  bad  that  it 
was  impossible  for  him  to  remain  with  his  regiment. 
He  was  recommended  by  the  governor  and  council  to 
President  Lincoln  for  appointment  as  brigadier-general 
of  the  United  States  volunteers.  His  strong  hereditary 
liking  for  the  pomp  of  military  life  was  the  reason  for 
his  entering  West  Point,  and  his  education  there,  com 
bined  with  his  natural  tendencies,  made  him  one  of  the 
best  drill  officers  in  the  state. 

Since  the  war  Colonel  Fellows  has  made  his  home  in 
Sandwich,  though  his  business  interests  have  been  mostly 


BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCHES.  697 

in  the  West.  He  was  a  member  of  the  legislature  from 
Sandwich  in  1868,  1869,  and  1877,  and  served  as  a 
member  of  the  military  and  railroad  committees.  The 
story  of  his  life  is  that  of  a  self-made,  upright  man,  and 
like  that  of  many  others,  is  best  known  by  his  soldier 
comrades.  He  treated  all  of  his  men  well,  and  was 
always  ready  to  listen  to  any  proper  complaint  and  to 
right  any  wrong  ;  while  the  soldier  is  yet  to  be  found 
who  cherishes  a  grievance  against  his  old  commander. 


ALMON   J.    FLETCHER. 

Comrade  Almon  J.  Fletcher,  Company  G,  was  a  na 
tive  of  Acworth,  though  residing  in  JLempster  at  the 
time  of  his  enlistment,  when  he  was  twenty  years  of  age. 
He  was  with  the  regiment  but  a  few  months,  yet  made  a 
good  record  as  a  soldier.  He  participated  in  two  battles, 
those  of  South  Mountain  and  Antietam,  and  was  wounded 
in  the  latter.  While  in  the  hospital  he  did  everything  in 
his  power  to  aid  his  comrades  less  fortunate  than  himself, 
and  it  was  by  lifting  a  helpless  soldier  that  Comrade 
Fletcher  received  the  injury  to  his  back  which  disabled 
him  for  active  service,  and  for  which  he  was  discharged 
February  28,  1863.  Since  that  time  he  has  been  unable 
to  do  any  hard  work,  suffering  pain  constantly,  and 
being  compelled  to  wear  a  stiff  corset  to  support  his 
injured  spine. 

J.   FRANK    FOSTER. 

This  comrade  was  a  member  of  Company  I.  He 
enlisted  from  Nelson,  August  n,  1862,  left  Camp  Colby 
with  the  regiment,  and  was  in  the  battles  of  South  Moun 
tain,  Antietam,  Fredericksburg,  Wilderness,  Spottsyl- 


698  NINTH  NE  W  HAMPSHIRE. 

vania,  Bethesda  Church,  Cold  Harbor,  the  Mine,  Wel- 
don  Railroad,  and  Poplar  Springs  Church.  At  the  last 
place,  September  30,  1864,  he  was  taken  prisoner,  and 
underwent  the  tortures  of  prospective  and  long  continued 
captivity,  described  by  himself  in  Chapter  XVIII,  but 
on  October  8  was  fortunate  enough  to  be  paroled.  He 
was  taken  to  Annapolis,  and  in  March,  1865,  received  a 
furlough  that  he  might  go  home  and  vote.  While  on  his 
way  to  exercise  the  much  prized  right  of  suffrage  he 
was  severely  injured  in  a  railway  accident  at  Bristol, 
Pa.,  and  did  not  return  to  his  regiment.  Comrade  Fos 
ter  was  wounded  in  a  raid  from  Newport  News,  Va.,  in 
February,  1863,  and  was  in  the  hospital  at  Baltimore 
when  the  regiment  was  ordered  to  Kentucky,  so  that  he 
lost  the  first  experiences  in  the  Blue  Grass  region  and  the 
Mississippi  campaign.  He  is  now  engaged  in  manufact 
uring  wedding  and  fancy  cake  specialties  at  709  Broad 
way,  South  Boston,  Mass. 


EDWARD    M.    GUSHEE. 

The  Rev.  Edward  M.  Gushee,  at  the  time  he  was 
commissioned,  was  rector  of  St.  Thomas's  church,  Dover. 
He  joined  the  regiment  at  Concord,  and  was  with  it  con 
tinuously  until  his  resignation,  at  the  expiration  of  one 
year,  this  being  the  time  he  had  been  given  a  vacation 
by  his  parish.  The  chaplain  was  with  the  regiment  at 
the  battles  of  South  Mountain,  Antietam,  Fredericks- 
burg,  and  Jackson,  Miss.  At  the  time  of  battle  he  aided 
the  surgeons  in  the  selection  and  preparation  of  a  build 
ing  for  a  hospital,  and  in  caring  for  the  wounded  as  they 
were  brought  in.  He  was  fond  of  the  officers  and  men 
and  of  their  society. 


BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCHES.  699 

Notwithstanding  that  the  regiment  was  so  actively 
engaged,  and  so  often  on  the  march,  many  Sunday  ser 
vices  were  held  that  year.  On  several  Sundays,  at  the 
request  of  General  Nagle,  Chaplain  Gushee  conducted 
services  for  the  whole  brigade.  On  one  Sunday,  after 
the  Battle  of  Antietam,  General  McClellan  sent  for  him 
to  preach  at  his  head-quarters.  On  two  or  three  occa 
sions  Sunday  services  were  held  in  churches  offered  to 
the  chaplain  for  this  purpose.  This  happened  at  Lex 
ington  and  Nicholsville.  In  Mississippi,  while  encamped 
at  Milldale,  a  sermon  was  delivered  on  the  foolish  habit 
of  continually  using  oaths  in  conversation,  which  dealt 
with  the  matter  in  very  plain  language,  that  might  have 
caused  offence  had  there  not  been  a  very  cordial  relation 
between  the  speaker  and  his  hearers.  Besides  this  he 
was  accustomed  to  accompany  his  regiment  on  dress 
parade,  where  he  offered  a  prayer  when  the  parade  was 
formed.  This  he  did  with  the  approval  of  the  officer  in 
command,  and  the  prayer  being  simply  one  of  the  short 
collects  of  the  Episcopal  church,  the  men  were  not 
wearied  by  the  additional  time  spent  on  parade,  while 
the  day  was  fittingly  brought  to  its  close. 

The  chaplain  had  made  a  great  many  warm  friends 
when  the  time  came  for  his  resignation  and  return  to  his 
parish,  and  since  the  war  he  has  frequently  met  with  the 
regiment  at  their  annual  reunion  at  The  Weirs.  The 
Rev.  Edward  M.  Gushee,  D.  D.,  is  now  .the  rector  of  St. 
Phillip's  church,  Cambridge,  Mass.,  in  which  city  a  large 
part  of  his  ministry  has  been  passed.  He  was  born  at 
Providence,  R.  I.,  and  is  a  graduate  of  Brown  university. 
He  is  a  member  of  the  Grand  Army  of  the  Republic,  and 
delivered  an  oration  at  Cambridge,  Memorial  Day,  1893. 
The  following  letter,  of  recent  date,  explains  itself: 


7<DO  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE. 

"I  look  back  with  great  pleasure  and  with  very 
tender  feelings  to  the  days  when  I  was  associated  with 
the  Ninth  New  Hampshire  regiment,  as  chaplain.  The 
friendships  then  formed  and  cemented  have  been  cherished 
in  my  memory  always.  I  think  we  had  very  excellent 
and  very  agreeable  officers,  and  a  large  proportion  of 
worthy  men  in  the  ranks.  I  do  not  remember  an 
instance  of  anything  but  gentlemanly  and  cordial  rela 
tions  among  the  officers,  a  fact  which  I  had  occasion  to 
know  was  remarked  in  other  regiments.  Certainly  the 
record  of  the  Ninth  for  bravery,  from  the  time  of  their 
intrepid  charge  at  South  Mountain,  to  the  end,  is  one  to 
be  proud  of.  I  am  glad  to  know  that  individual  instances 
of  prowess  were  recognized  by  congress. 

"My  own  relations,  as  chaplain,  were  very  grateful 
to  me.  I  remember  many  kindnesses,  both  from  officers 
and  men.  They  were  very  companionable,  and  I  enjoyed 
their  society.  Religious  services  cannot  always  be  held 
in  the  army  as  often  as  one  would  desire,  but  when  I 
consider  how  much  campaigning  was  done  by  the  Ninth 
the  year  I  was  with  them,  I  sometimes  wonder  that  we 
enjoyed  as  many  religious  services  as  we  did.  The 
scene  recurs  to  me  frequently,  of  some  of  those  occasions 
when  we  were  assembled  for  Divine  worship,  the  extem 
porized  desk — some  hard-tack  boxes  covered  with  a  flag, 
the  band  of  the  Ninth  at  hand  to  render  some  old  and 
familiar  sacred  tunes,  and  the  regiment,  and  sometimes 
the  brigade,  grouped  around  me.  Then,  again,  I  think 
of  the  sad  scenes  during  a  battle — the  dead  and  the 
wounded — the  sick  and  discouraged  in  the  hospitals — 
and  the  sorrowful  letters  I  had  to  write  to  bereaved 
friends. 

"I    was    a   young    clergyman    when    commissioned, 


BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCHES.  701 

almost  the  youngest  officer,  except  perhaps  the  young 
lawyer,  Adjutant  Chandler,  my  friend.  I  was  also  a 
stranger  to  almost  all.  But  the  officers  and  men  soon 
gave  me  their  friendship  and  confidence,  and  made  my 
position  agreeable.  It  is  difficult  to  realize  that  we  were 
actors  in  those  stirring  times  which  have  now  passed  into 
history.  When  we  look  back  upon  them  it  seems  like  a 
dream,  save  when  we  meet  some  members  of  the  regi 
ment  and  recall  more  vividly  the  old  associations.  It  is 
pleasant  to  do  this.  I  hope  that  many  more  reunions 
may  be  enjoyed  here  on  earth,  and  fondly  cherish  the 
thought  of  the  joyful  reunion  in  the  great  hereafter. 
"Very  truly  yours, 

"  EDWARD  M.  GUSHEE." 


WILLIAM    H.    HARTWELL. 

At  the  explosion  of  the  Mine,  July  30,  1864,  Sergt. 
Maj.  Franklin  H.  Foster  was  seized  by  the  Confed 
erates  and  carried  into  fatal  captivity  at  Salisbury,  N.  C. 
He  was  succeeded  on  the  non-commissioned  staff  by 
Sergt.  William  H.  Hartwell  of  Company  I,  who  acted 
as  sergeant-major  until  September  30,  1864,  when  he 
was  captured  at  Poplar  Springs  church,  Va.  Sergeant 
Hartwell  is  a  native  of  Langdon .  He  enlisted  August  1 1 , 
1862,  at  the  age  of  twenty-one  years,  and  was  assigned  to 
Company  I ;  was  appointed  corporal  December  10,  1862, 
and  promoted  to  be  sergeant  the  following  May.  He  was 
released  from  the  rebel  prison  February  28,  1865,  and 
discharged  June  12,  of  that  year,  at  Baltimore,  Md. 
Since  the  war  he  has  become  a  citizen  of  Warren  county, 
Illinois,  where  he  has  taken  a  prominent  place  in  busi 
ness  and  political  life.  His  successes  have  been  a  source 
of  much  pleasure  to  his  comrades  of  the  regiment. 


702  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE. 

A.  PAUL   HORNE. 

Among  the  many  efficient  soldiers  furnished  from  the 
farming  regions  of  the  Granite  state  is  numbered  A. 
Paul  Home,  who  was  born  in  Alexandria,  the  son  of 
Noah  and  Theresa  A.  (Bellows)  Home.  In  1862  young 
Paul,  then  sixteen  years  of  age,  was  tilling  the  soil  in  the 
town  of  Bristol,  where  he  enlisted  on  May  4.  He  was 
mustered  into  the  Ninth  regiment  July  22,  and  remained 
with  it  from  then  till  the  Battle  of  Fredericksburg,  when 
he  was  wounded  and  sent  to  the  hospital.  Rejoining  his 
regiment  at  Aquia  Creek,  he  participated  in  the  Mis 
sissippi  campaign  and  the  Kentucky  experiences.  He 
was  one  of  the  famous  head-quarters  guard  of  General 
Potter,  but  passed  some  weeks  in  the  Camp  Dennison 
(Ohio)  hospital.  Returning  to  Virginia  he  was  captured 
at  Spottsylvania,  and  had  the  misfortune  to  undergo  the 
trials  and  suffering  so  graphically  described  by  him  in 
another  chapter.  He  was  released  in  December,  1864, 
and  was  mustered  out  with  the  regiment,  after  which,  as 
the  agent  of  a  New  York  firm,  he  was  employed  for  six 
months  in  the  Pennsylvania  oil  region,  and  then  in  Boston 
as  a  clerk  for  Russell  &  Phelps,  household  furnishers. 
After  this  he  was  at  Lowell,  in  the  Lowell  machine  shop, 
and  while  in  that  city  in  1866,  found  not  only  his  wife, 
who  was  born  in  Monroe,  Me.,  and  whose  maiden  name 
was  Frances  B.  Ricker,  but  also  his  life-work,  when  he 
entered  the  weaving  department  of  the  Appleton  mills. 
This  business  he  has  followed  ever  since — not  only  at 
Lowell,  but  at  Chicopee  Falls,  Chicopee,  Holyoke,  arid 
New  Bedford,  Mass.,  and  at  Salmon  Falls  and  Manches 
ter,  this  state.  In  the  last  named  city  he  now  lives,  the 
superintendent  of  weaving  in  the  Amory  and  Langdon 


BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCHES.  703 

mills,  and  a  public-spirited  and  influential  citizen.  While 
at  Salmon  Falls,  Comrade  Home  was  elected  one  of  the 
selectmen  of  Rollinsford,  and  at  Manchester  he  is  a 
member  of  the  city's  board  of  education.  He  has  been 
president  of  the  Regimental  association,  in  whose  service 
he  has  never  flagged.  As  a  prominent  resident  of  the 
Queen  city,  and  a  man  of  sound  judgment,  ever  loyal  to 
his  party  and  friends,  Comrade  Home's  influence  in  the 
councils  of  the  Republican  party  has  been  by  no  means 
inconsiderable.  He  has  two  children  living :  Adrian 
L.,  who  occupies  a  responsible  position  in  the  Manches 
ter  National  bank,  and  Lester  Porter,  who  lives  with  his 
parents. 


ANDREW  J.  HOUGH. 

Andrew  Jackson  Hough  was  born  in  Dover,  August  8, 
1837.  He  was  the  son  of  English  parents,  who  came  to 
this  country  from  Manchester,  England,  where  the  father 
had  been  employed  as  a  calico  printer,  in  1827.  He 
attended  the  public  schools  of  Dover  until  thirteen  years 
of  age,  when  he  went  as  apprentice  designer  and  sketch- 
maker  into  the  Cocheco  Print  Works  of  that  city.  After 
serving  his  apprenticeship  he  married,  February  22, 
1858,  Miss  Mary  E.,  daughter  of  Alonzo  and  Mary 
Roberts,  of  Dover.  When  in  May,  1862,  the  governor 
of  New  Hampshire  was  asked  to  raise  an  additional 
regiment  of  infantry,  the  sturdy  young  Briton  was 
among  the  first  to  respond  to  the  call.  Enlisting  as  a 
private,  on  the  organization  of  the  Ninth  regiment  he  was 
commissioned  as  first  lieutenant  of  Company  D,  about 
forty  Dover  men  being  enrolled  in  the  same  company. 
After  the  second  engagement  of  the  regiment,  which  was 
the  hard  fought  Battle  of  Antietam,  the  young  lieutenant, 


704  NINTH  NE IV  HA  M PS  HI  RE. 

greatly  to  his  own  surprise,  was  promoted  to  be  captain 
of  Company  I,  receiving  his  commission  as  such  Nov 
ember  2,  1862. 

Then  came  the  terrible  contest  that  was  waged  on  the 
slopes  of  Fredericksburg,  the  hardships  of  the  winter  of 
1862-3,  and  the  fatal  Mississippi  campaign,  in  all  of 
which  Captain  "Jack  "  was  ever  to  be  found  at  the  post 
of  duty,  with  always  a  cheery  word  of  encouragement 
for  his  men.  They  were  proud  of  a  leader  who  when 
there  was  danger  to  be  faced  simply  said  "  Come  on, 
boys  !  "  and  himself  headed  the  assaulting  column.  On 
the  return  of  the  regiment  to  Kentucky  he  was  detailed 
as  aide  and  provost-marshal  on  the  staff  of  General 
Frye,  whose  head-quarters  were  at  Nicholasville,  but 
rejoined  his  regiment  when  it  set  out  for  Knoxville  in 
February,  1864. 

In  the  fierce  and  bloody  battles  that  characterized  the 
campaign  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  during  the  spring 
and  summer  of  1864,  Captain  Hough  won  fresh  laurels  in 
the  service  of  his  country,  the  command  of  the  regiment 
devolving  upon  him,  by  order  of  General  Griffin,  May 
18,  1864.  The  campaign  culminated  in  the  Battle  of  the 
Mine,  before  Petersburg,  July  30.  Through  the  fright 
ful  scenes  of  the  early  morning  Captain  Hough  was  per 
fectly  self-possessed,  and  so  fearless  of  danger  that  his 
comrades  begged  of  him  again  and  again  not  to  expose 
himself  so  recklessly.  When  the  colored  troops  came 
crowding  into  the  crater,  closely  followed  by  the  enemy, 
Captain  Hough  made  a  last  desperate  effort  to  rally  the 
disorganized  body  of  men  around  him,  but  was  struck 
down  by  a  Minie  ball  through  the  throat  and  head  just  as 
he  had  called  to  the  men  to  rally  on  the  colors  ;  and  in  the 
rush  and  confusion  which  followed,  and  the  final  aban- 


BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCHES.  705 

donment  of  the  ground  then  held,  his  fall  gave  rise  to  the 
report  that  the  gallant  captain  had  been  instantly  killed. 

Not  every  man  has  the  good  fortune  to  be  able  to  pass 
judgment  on  the  obituaries  which  his  friends  prepare 
after  his  supposed  decease;  but  Captain  "Jack"  was 
deserving  of  all  the  good  words  penned  by  comrades 
and  friends  in  h^nor  of  the  man  whom  they  sincerely 
mourned.  After  lying  on  the  field  for  thirty-six  hours  he 
was  removed  to  Libby  prison,  where  he  remained  for  six 
months.  He  was  paroled  in  December,  1864,  and  dis 
charged,  on  account  of  the  frightful  wound  he  had 
received,  June  22,  1865.  After  his  return  home  he  was 
brevetted  major  for  his  gallant  conduct  on  the  field.  He 
resumed  his  former  position  in  the  Cocheco  printery, 
but  in  1867  accepted  an  offer  from  Providence,  R.  I. 
In  1872  he  entered  the  employ  of  the  Hamilton  mills 
at  Lowell,  Mass.,  and  ten  years  later  removed  to  North 
Adams,  Mass.,  where  he  still  pursues  his  trade  of 
designer  and  sketch-maker  in  the  Freeman  Print  Works. 
He  is  a  member  of  Strafford  lodge,  F.  and  A.  M.,  of 
Dover  ;  past  noble  grand  of  Merrimac  lodge,  I.  O.  O.  F. , 
and  past  chief  patriarch  of  Neonomake  encampment, 
I.  O.  O.  F.  In  1889  he  was  appointed  commander  of 
the  C.  D.  Sanford  post,  G.  A.  R.,  and  has  served  three 
terms  in  that  capacity. 

Major  Hough,  as  he  is  familiarly  known,  is  a  man  of 
fine  personal  appearance  and  physique,  standing  nearly 
six  feet  high  and  having  an  erect  bearing  which  plainly 
marks  him  as  a  military  man.  He  is  one  who  has 
made  many  friends  wherever  he  is  known,  and  possesses 
a  cordial  and  genial  manner  which  would  at  once  impress 
one  with  respect  and  confidence.  As  a  citizen  he  is  un 
usually  admired  for  his  many  fine  and  manly  qualities. 


XLV 


706  A? I  NTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE. 

LEVI    HOWARD. 

Comrade  Howard  was  a  native  of  Rochester,  born 
February  25,  1829.  He  enlisted  in  that  town  July  23, 
1862,  was  assigned  to  Company  H,  and  was  captured  at 
South  Mountain,  September  14,  1862.  He  was  dis 
charged  July  10,  1865,  at  Concord,  thirty-two  of  his 
thirty-six  months'  service  having  been  passed  in  Ander- 
sonville  and  L/ibby  prisons.  Weighing  ordinarily  one 
hundred  and  sixty-five  pounds,  his  friends  at  Rochester 
were  horrified  at  his  appearance  when  he  returned  weigh 
ing  only  ninety-six  pounds,  and  so  weak  physically  and 
mentally  that  he  could  not  tell  the  year,  month,  or  day  of 
the  month.  He  recovered,  however,  and  was  able  to  fol 
low  his  trade,  carpentering.  On  August  12,  1890,  he 
died  at  Augusta,  Me.,  leaving  a  widow  and  three  children. 
He  is  buried  at  South  Berwick,  Me. 


DANIEL  E.  HURD. 

D.  Emerson  Hurd,  as  that  comrade  usually  writes  his 
name,  was  born  in  Lempster,  and  on  August  19,  1862,  at 
the  age  of  eighteen,  enlisted  for  three  years  and  became 
a  member  of  Company  G.  He  was  with  the  regiment  at 
South  Mountain,  Antietam,  and  Fredericksburg,  but  on 
February  7,  1863,  was  sent  to  Eckington  hospital,  Wash 
ington,  very  sick  with  camp  fever  and  chronic  diarrhea. 
The  following  April  he  was  furloughed  for  forty  days,  and 
at  the  end  of  that  time  reported  at  Concord  ;  but  instead 
of  being  sent  to  the  front,  was  so  enfeebled  that  he  was 
ordered  to  the  hospital  in  that  city,  where  he  remained  till 
August  10,  a  part  of  the  time  officiating  as  nurse.  He  then 
became  orderly  for  recruiting  officer  Maj.  J.  H.  Whittle- 
sey,  until  October  17,  when  he  was  discharged  for  general 


BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCHES,  707 

disability.  In  1864  he  married  Ruth  M.  Bruce,  sister  of 
George  O.  Bruce  of  Company  G,  and  in  1865  began 
blacksmithing  at  Warner,  which  trade  he  followed,  there 
and  at  Fisherville  (now  Penacook),  and  at  Topsfield, 
Mass.,  until  1882,  with  the  exception  of  two  years, 
1870-2,  when  he  was  turnkey  in  the  Essex  County 
(Mass.)  house  of  correction.  On  account  of  increasing 
illness  he  was  obliged  to  quit  working  at  his  trade,  so 
bought  a  farm  near  Westminster  Depot,  Mass.,  where 
he  now  resides.  At  Topsfield,  Mass.,  Comrade  Hurd 
served  his  town  on  the  school  committee,  and  has  per 
formed  the  same  public  service  at  Westminster  for  several 
successive  years.  He  is  a  deacon  of  the  Congregational 
church,  and  a  prominent  Odd  Fellow,  having  passed  all 
the  chairs  in  the  subordinate  lodge  and  performed  official 
duties  in  the  grand  lodge.  He  has  four  children.  The 
oldest,  Arno  E.,  has  been  captain  of  Camp  101,  S.  of  V., 
at  Westminster.  The  second,  Albert  G.,  has  studied 
medicine  at  the  University  of  Pennsylvania,  and  the 
others,  a  boy  and  a  girl,  are  at  home. 

CHARLES    O.    HURLBUTT. 

Charles  O.  Hurlbutt  of  Lebanon  was  born  on  a  Grafton 
county  farm  in  the  town  of  Hanover,  September  22, 
1844.  His  parents  were  Elihu  and  Emeline  L.  (Goodell) 
Hurlbutt.  His  education  was  obtained  in  the  public 
schools  of  his  native  town,  attheNewbury  (Vt.)  academy, 
and  at  Meriden.  He  was  one  of  the  "  Kimball  Union 
squad,"  and  enlisted,  at  the  age  of  sixteen,  in  Company  E 
of  the  Ninth  New  Hampshire,  following  its  fortunes  until 
the  close  of  the  war.  At  the  Battle  of  South  Mountain, 
though  a  mere  lad,  he  took  single-handed,  in  the  midst 


708  NINTH  NE IV  HAMPSHIRE. 

of  a  dense  growth  of  laurel,  the  first  prisoner  ever  taken 
by  his  regiment. 

After  the  expiration  of  his  time  of  service,  he  engaged 
in  lumber  business  at  Lyme,  and  upon  the  burning  of 
his  mill  took  charge  of  important  milling  interests  in 
Deerfield,  Mass.  About  1870  he  removed  to  Lebanon, 
and  has  since  resided  there,  for  thirteen  years  being 
engaged  in  the  lumber  business.  He  represented 
Lebanon  in  the  legislatures  of  1878  and  1879,  serving 
in  both  upon  the  railroad  committee  and  being  a  practi 
cal,  working  member.  During  President  Harrison's 
administration  he  was  deputy  collector  of  internal 
revenue  for  the  district  of  New  Hampshire,  and  was 
quartermaster-general  on  the  staff'  of  Gov.  David  H. 
Goodell.  In  1892,  General  Hurlbutt,  who  had  pre 
viously  served  two  terms  as  deputy  and  one  as  high 
sheriff,  was  elected  to  the  shrievalty  of  Grafton  county, 
to  which  position  he  was  re-elected  in  1894.  It  was  he 
who  performed  the  execution  of  the  notorious  criminal, 
Frank  C.  Almy.  His  official  duties  have  been  per 
formed  at  all  times  quietly,  promptly,  wisely,  and 
economically.  Personally,  General  Hurlbutt  is  a  very 
genial  and  companionable  gentleman,  whose  unfailing 
kindness  of  heart  and  helping  hand  make  hosts  of 
friends  who  stay. 


JAMES    B.    KIMBALL. 

There  died  at  Newton,  December  14,  1888,  a  comrade 
of  Company  A  whose  war  record  was  of  the  best, 
and  whose  subsequent  career  in  civil  life  was  marked  by 
faithful  service  in  many  capacities.  His  name  was 
James  B.  Kimball.  Born  at  Newton,  and  enlisting  June 


BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCHES.  709 

16,  1862,  at  the  age  of  eighteen,  he  was  in  the  service 
of  the  regiment,  as  private,  corporal,  and  sergeant,  until 
June  10,  1865.  At  Spottsylvania  he  was  wounded. 
After  the  Rebellion  he  returned  to  Newton,  and  engaged 
in  the  wood  and  lumber  business,  and  sometimes  bought 
apples  in  that  section  of  Rockingham  county  as  the 
agent  of  a  Boston  firm.  He  had  held  nearly  every 
elective  and  appointive  office  in  his  native  town,  and  at 
the  time  of  his  death  had  just  been  elected  to  a  two  years 
term  as  the  town's  representative  to  the  state  legislature. 
A  member  of  the  Christian  church  and  of  the  local 
G.  A.  R.  post,  a  prominent  Odd  Fellow,  and  alive  to 
every  good  work,  his  loss  has  told  heavily  on  the  Newton 
people.  He  left  a  widow  and  five  children. 


JAMES    W.    LATHE. 

There  lived  in  1837,  at  Coventry,  Vt.,  a  farmer  and 
cooper,  Aaron  Lathe,  who  had  formerly  been  a  lumber 
man  along  the  St.  Lawrence,  although  he  was  born  at 
Petersham,  Mass.  During  his  stay  in  Canada  he  met 
and  married  Esther  Fordyce,  of  Dunham,  in  the  present 
province  of  Quebec.  This  worthy  couple  had  three 
sons,  Freeman  L.,  James  W.,  and  Hiram  S.,  who  were 
in  Manchester  in  1862,  and  in  July  of  that  year  enlisted 
in  the  Ninth  New  Hampshire  volunteers.  Of  them  Dr. 
Webster,  the  surgeon,  said  after  his  examination,  that 
they  were  "  the  three  best-bodied  men  in  the  regiment." 
One  of  them,  Freeman  L.,  was  captured  at  South  Moun 
tain,  but  was  afterwards  exchanged,  and  rejoined  the  reg 
iment  at  Falmouth,  remaining  with  it  during  the  rest  of 
its  service. 

Another  of  these  sons,  Hiram  S.,  was  shot  through 


710  NINTH  NE  W  HAMPSHIRE. 

the  patella,  at  South  Mountain,  being  the  first  man 
wounded  in  the  regiment,  and  was  in  the  hospital  at 
Frederick,  Md.,  until  February  25,  1863,  when  he  was 
discharged. 

The  other  brother,  James  W.,  was  with  the  regiment 
from  the  beginning  until  he  was  severely  wounded  in  the 
left  hand  at  the  Mine,  July  30,  1864,  and  sent  to  Mount 
Pleasant  hospital,  Washington,  where  he  was  discharged 
disabled  the  following  December. 

James  was  largely  instrumental  in  the  recruiting  of 
Company  F,  and  at  Camp  Colby  was  appointed  one  of 
its  corporals.  On  January  i,  1863,  he  was  appointed 
sergeant,  and  he  was  from  the  beginning  one  of  the 
sturdiest  and  truest  among  his  sturdy  and  true  comrades, 
and  one  of  the  most  influential  men  in  the  regiment. 
Colonel  Titus  has  repeatedly  told  the  story  of  how,  in 
quiring  of  the  adjutant  who  was  the  most  trustworthy 
sergeant  in  the  regiment,  that  officer  replied  without  hes 
itation,  "Sergeant  Lathe."  On  account  of  this  remark, 
and  his  known  fidelity,  Sergeant  Lathe  was  frequently 
detailed  for  specially  arduous  and  dangerous  service. 

His  war  record  is  best  given  in  a  recommendation  for 
promotion  which  he  received  from  Captain  Case,  De 
cember  5,  1864.  It  reads  as  follows  : 

CAMP  QTH  REGIMENT,  N.  H.  VOL.  INFANTRY. 
NEAR  WELDON  R.  R.,  VA.,  December  5,  1866. 

To  whom  it  may  concern : 

I  have  the  honor  to  certify  that  Sergt.  J.  W.  Lathe  has  been  a  mem 
ber  of  my  company  since  its  organization,  at  Concord,  N.  H.,  in 
August,  1862,  and  it  affords  me  pleasure  to  bear  witness  to  his  uniform 
good  habits  and  efficiency  as  a  non-commissioned  officer,  as  well  as  his 
coolness  and  bravery  in  action.  He  has  done  duty  with  his  company 
most  of  the  time  since  its  formation,  and  has  participated  with  it  in 


CAPT.  LUDO  B.  LITTLE,  Co.  A. 


BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCHES. 

some  ten  battles,  in  all  of  which  he  has  won  the  respect  of  his  supe 
rior  officers  by  his  energy  and  gallantry. 

He  was  wounded  in  action  near  Petersburg,  Va.,  July  30,  1864, 
while  commanding  his  company,  and  for  his  marked  bravery  on  that 
occasion  was  highly  complimented  by  the  commanding  officer  of  his 
regiment. 

I  take  pleasure  in  recommending  him  for  promotion,  as  I  consider 

him  worthy. 

Very  respectfully, 

E.  T.  CASE, 

Capt.  Co.  F,  9///  Ar.  H.  V. 

For  a  year  or  two  after  the  war  Comrade  Lathe  was 
able  to  do  very  little  work,  because  of  his  wounded 
hand,  but  for  the  next  twenty  years  was  employed  by  the 
corporations  of  Manchester  in  various  capacities.  Dur 
ing  the  last  eight  years  he  has  retired  from  active  service 
for  others,  and  devoted  his  time  to  the  management  of 
his  own  somewhat  extensive  real  estate  interests  at  the 
Queen  city,  which  he  has  served  in  various  offices.  In 
1887  he  represented  his  ward  in  the  legislature.  He  has 
been  a  prominent  figure  in  the  affairs  of  the  Regimental 
association. 

On  January  21,  1860,  Mr.  Lathe  married  Laura 
Morse,  a  native  of  Londonderry.  They  have  had  three 
children.  A  daughter,  Hattie,  died  in  1886,  in  her  six 
teenth  year.  Their  two  sons,  aged  seventeen  and  four 
teen,  live  at  home.  The  elder,  Ernest  W.,  is  a  clerk  at 
the  Manchester  freight  station  of  the  Boston  &  Maine 
railroad;  the  younger,  J.  Arthur,  is  attending  school. 


LUDO   B.    LITTLE. 

Ludo  Burrill  Little  was  born  in  the  town  of  Lyman, 
Grafton  county,  in  October,  1838.  He  was  the  son  of 
Joseph  and  Mary  (Cobleigh)  Little.  At  the  age  of 


712  NINTH  NE  W  HAMPSHIRE. 

seventeen  he  enlisted  in  the  United  States  Marine  corps 
as  a  private,  for  the  period  of  four  years.  July  16,  1861, 
his  term  of  service  having  expired,  he  was  discharged  as 
a  corporal  at  the  Philadelphia  navy  yard,  and  a  year 
later  enlisted  as  a  private  in  Company  B  of  the  Ninth 
regiment.  Mustered  in  as  sergeant,  he  shared  the  for 
tunes  of  the  Ninth  through  all  its  wanderings  and  vicissi 
tudes.  His  daring  and  gallantry  in  the  field  raised  him 
to  the  rank  of  captain  of  Company  A,  his  commission  as 
such  dating  from  January  i,  1864.  He  was  twice 
wounded  while  in  the  service,  at  Fredericksburg  and  in 
the  trenches  before  Petersburg.  The  latter  wound,  a 
Minie  ball  striking  the  right  foot  and  carrying  away 
three  toes  and  breaking  a  fourth,  resulted  in  permanent 
disability. 

Captain  Little  was  discharged  at  Annapolis,  October 
24,  1864,  and  at  once  entered  the  law  school  at  Ann 
Arbor,  Michigan.  After  graduating,  he  began  the  prac 
tice  of  his  profession  at  Albany,  N.  Y.,  and  was  admit 
ted  to  the  supreme  court  of  that  state  in  1873.  Some 
years  later  his  health  became  so  much  impaired  that  he 
removed  to  Nebraska  in  the  hope  of  securing  relief.  A 
bronchial  trouble  developed  here,  he  was  again  com 
pelled  to  move,  and  settled  in  Nevada  City,  Cal.,  in 
1885.  For  five  years  he  enjoyed  an  active  and  success 
ful  practice,  and  then  the  brave  and  loyal  soldier,  the 
able  lawyer,  the  honored  citizen,  was  called  to  his  last, 
long  home,  March  2,  1890.  He  was  a  member  of  the 
Masonic  fraternity,  past  commander  of  Chattanooga 
post,  G.  A.  R.,  and  a  zealous  supporter  of  the  auxiliary 
circle  of  the  Ladies  of  the  G.  A.  R.  Captain  Little  left 
a  widow,  Mary  E.  (Shurtleff)  Little,  and  one  son, 
Hazen  Jesse. 


BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCHES.  713 

JOHN    E.    MASON. 

John  Edwin  Mason  was  born  at  Petersham,  Mass., 
but  was  a  resident  of  Manchester  in  1862,  and  on  August 
10  of  that  year  was  appointed  second  lieutenant  of  Com 
pany  F.  He  was  mustered  in  August  23,  and  remained 
in  the  service  until  March  9,  1865 ,  when  he  was  discharged 
on  account  of  disability.  He  acted  as  assistant  adjutant- 
general  on  the  staff  of  Gen.  S.  D.  Sturgis,  and  on 
November  22,  1862,  was  made  first  lieutenant  of  Com 
pany  D.  After  the  war,  Comrade  Mason  studied  medi 
cine  at  Georgetown  college,  District  of  Columbia,  from 
which  he  received  the  degree  of  M.  D.  He  settled  at 
Washington,  and  became  prominent  in  Masonry  and 
Odd  Fellowship,  as  well  as  in  the  political  life  of  the 
city.  At  the  time  of  his  sudden  decease  from  heart 
trouble,  March  5,  1892,  he  was  a  clerk  in  the  United 
States  Pension  office,  and  one  of  the  historians  of  the 
Ninth  New  Hampshire  Regimental  association,  in 
which  organization  he  had  ever  taken  a  deep  interest, 
and  whose  members  had  held  him  in  the  highest  regard 
ever  since  the  day,  on  the  westerly  side  of  the  Antietam, 
when  he  so  gallantly  discharged  his  duties  as  aide-de 
camp  amid  a  storm  of  Confederate  shot  and  shell. 


JAMES    H.    MATTHEWS. 

James  Henry  Matthews,  of  Company  I,  was  born  at 
Swanzey,  September  7,  1840,  the  son  of  John  H.  Mat 
thews,  a  prominent  farmer  and  brick-maker  of  that  town. 
There  the  son  grew  up,  and  having  received  a  common 
school  education,  engaged  in  lumbering  until  August  7, 
1862,  when  he  enlisted  at  Keene.  On  the  i5th  of  the 


714  NINTH  NE  W  HA  MPSHIRE. 

same  month  he  was  mustered  in  as  a  private  of  Com 
pany  I,  Ninth  New  Hampshire  volunteers,  and  entered 
the  war  with  that  regiment,  with  which  he  remained 
most  of  the  time  during  its  term  of  service.  May  i, 
1865,  he  was  appointed  corporal.  At  Poplar  Springs 
church,  September  30,  1864,  he  was  wounded  in  the 
head,  and  sent  for  a  while  to  the  Ninth  Corps  hospital, 
at  City  Point,  Va.  After  the  war  nearly  all  his  life  was 
passed  as  a  landlord  of  hotels  in  New  Hampshire,  Ver 
mont,  and  Massachusetts.  For  his  chosen  life-work  he 
was  eminently  fitted,  being  an  unassuming,  courteous 
man,  of  pleasing  address  and  affable  manners,  who  kept 
a  quiet,  orderly  house,  set  a  good  table,  and  made  his 
hostelry  a  pleasant  abiding-place  for  travellers.  He  was 
a  model  landlord,  and  consequently  was  able  to  acquire 
a  competency  where  others  failed. 

His  hotel  life  began  at  Marlow,  and  was  continued  at 
Hinsdale,  at  Brattleboro,  Vt.,  and  at  Gardner  and  Mil- 
ford,  Mass.  At  the  last  named  place  the  Hotel  Willan 
was  built  for  him.  He  went  there  in  1887,  and  remained 
until  his  decease  in  1895. 

On  April  15,  1866,  Comrade  Matthews  married  Carrie 
L.  Thomas,  of  Swanzey,  who,  with  one  son,  Frank  R. 
Matthews,  of  Bellows  Falls,  Vt.,  survives  him.  He  was 
a  member  of  Golden  Rule  lodge,  F.  and  A.  M.,  at 
Hinsdale,  of  Roman  lodge,  K.  of  P.,  and  of  Post  22, 
G.  A.  R.,  at  Milford. 

Soon  after  Comrade  Matthews's  decease  the  following 
resolutions  were  adopted  by  the  surviving  comrades  of 
Company  I  : 

WHEREAS,  In  the  providence  of  God  death  has  removed  from  our 
midst  our  well  beloved  comrade,  J.  H.  Matthews,  therefore  be  it 

Resolved,  That,  as  we  glance  over  the  list  of  names  on  the  records  of 


BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCHES.  715 

our  association,  we  find  the  ranks  are  fast  being  thinned.  Soon  we 
shall  not  be  able  to  find  even  a  few  left  that  took  part  with  us  in  the 
hardships  of  the  camp  and  march,  during  the  eventful  period  from 
1862  to  1865. 

Resolved,  We  will  cherish  his  memory  as  one  who  loved  his  fellow- 
comrades  and  tried  to  assist  the  needy  in  times  of  distress  and  sorrow, 
always  remembering  "it  is  more  blessed  to  give  than  to  receive.-' 

Resolved,  That  our  association  contains  but  few  members  whose 
decease  would  cause  a  deeper  sense  of  separation  and  loss  than  that  of 
Comrade  Matthews.  He  stood  among  us  as  one  who  was  constant  and 
unwavering  in  the  service  of  his  country.  His  character,  marked  in 
its  traits,  was  seen  and  understood  at  first  acquaintance,  and  time  and 
intimacy  simply  strengthened  the  impression.  He  was  frank,  direct  in 
speech,  transparent  in  motive,  consistent  in  action,  in  all  to  such  a 
degree  that  his  opinion  and  conduct  could  always  be  understood.  He 
bestowed  his  friendship  promptly  and  fully,  and  neither  lapse  of  time 
nor  absence  would  weaken  it.  His  words  were  earnest,  strong,  and 
without  disguise,  but  they  were  uttered  in  such  kindness  and  sincerity 
of  spirit  that  no  offence  or  ill  feeling  could  spring  from  them. 

Resolved,  That  the  character  of  our  comrade,  as  it  revealed  itself 
among  us,  maintained  its  consistency  in  his  public  and  social  relations. 
He  was  upright,  persistent,  and  practical,  in  daily  duty ;  in  public 
affairs  and  in  citizenship,  wherever  he  was  trusted  he  was  found  faith 
ful.  His  life  has  reached  its  end  while  he  was  still  in  the  full  enjoy 
ment  of  the  respect  and  confidence  of  the  whole  community,  who  knew 
him  as  an  honest  man. 

Resolved,  That  we  tender  to  the  bereaved  widow  and  son  our  warm 
est  sympathies  and  deep-felt  condolement  in  their  affliction,  and  trust 
that  they  will  receive  from  God  our  Heavenly  Father  that  consolation 
and  peace  which  he  alone  can  give. 

Resolved,  That  these  resolutions  be  spread  upon  the  records  of  our 
association,  and  that  a  copy  of  the  same  be  forwarded  to  the  widow  of 
our  deceased  comrade. 

"  Life's  labor  done, 
Serenely  to  his  final  rest  he  passed, 
While  the  soft  memories  of  his  virtues  yet  linger, 
Like  sunlight  hues  when  that  bright  orb  is  set." 


7 1 6  NINTH  NE  W  HAMPSHIRE. 

WILLIAM   McGARRETT. 

Sergt.  William  McGarrett  was  a  native  of  Belleville, 
N.  J.,  but  at  the  age  of  twenty-three  was  a  resident  of 
Manchester,  from  which  place  he  enlisted  as  private  in 
July,  1862.  He  was  wounded  at  Fredericksburg,  and 
given  a  commission  as  sergeant.  After  the  Mississippi 
campaign  he  was  detailed,  with  others,  as  head-quarters 
guard  for  the  Second  division,  and  went  down  into  Ten 
nessee.  In  foraging  along  the  south  side  of  the  Holston 
river  for  supplies  for  the  army,  the  guard  met  with  many 
exciting  adventures,  being  often  fired  upon  and  some 
times  wounded.  He  was  at  Lyon's  Mills  when  Long- 
street  attacked,  at  the  Battle  of  Fort  Saunders,  and  the 
siege  of  Knoxville.  After  the  siege  he  was  transferred 
to  Company  K  of  the  Fifty-first  Pennsylvania,  and  had 
several  skirmishes  with  the  enemy  at  Strawberry  Plains. 
At  the  Battle  of  Poplar  Springs  Church,  September  30, 
1864,  Sergeant  McGarrett  was  captured,  and  imprisoned 
at  Salisbury.  The  graphic  story  of  his  prison  life  is 
given  in  Chapter  XIX  of  this  volume.  His  present 
home  is  at  Cambridgeport,  Mass. 

EDWIN    R.    MILLER. 

Edwin  R.  Miller  was  born  at  Bridgewater,  Vt.,  Nov 
ember  12,  1839.  His  father  was  Nathaniel  Miller,  Jr., 
a  colonel  of  the  Vermont  militia,  and  his  mother  was 
Nancy  Paul.  Hs  enlisted  under  E.  T.  Case  at  Newport, 
in  August,  1862,  and  was  appointed  color  corporal  for 
Company  K  at  the  organization  of  the  regiment  in 
Concord.  After  the  Battle  of  Antietam,  Corporal  Miller 
was  detailed  to  carry  the  State  colors.  At  the  Battle  of 
Fredericksburg  Corporal  Miller's  flag  was  made  the  signal 


BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCHES.  717 

flag  for  the  day  by  General  Sumner.  At  night  he 
brought  both  the  State  and  National  colors  from  the 
field,  carried  them  into  a  brick  slave-pen,  and  set  them 
down  in  one  corner.  He  had  just  bestowed  himself  on 
the  floor,  when  a  cannon  ball  struck  the  wall  behind 
him,  breaking  out  the  side  of  the  building  and  half  bury 
ing  the  corporal  in  the  fallen  debris.  When  he  recov 
ered  consciousness  and  tried  to  extricate  himself,  he,  in 
the  darkness,  fell  through  to  the  basement,  where  he  was 
found  later  on  by  Lieutenant  Brown  of  Company  K,  who 
sent  two  comrades  to  carry  him  to  the  brigade  hospital. 
He  was  afterwards  removed  to  Washington,  where  he 
remained  in  the  hospital  until  the  spring  of  1863,  when 
he  was  sent  to  Portsmouth  Grove  hospital  in  Rhode 
Island,  and  in  June  to  the  hospital  at  Bedlow's  island, 
New  York.  July  2  he  started  to  rejoin  his  regiment, 
which  was  then  at  Vicksburg,  when  he  was  again  taken 
ill  and  was  an  inmate  of  the  hospital  until  the  latter  part 
of  September.  From  that  time  until  his  discharge,  June 
10,  1865,  he  was  at  Madison,  Ind.,  where  he  served  in 
the  hospital  as  ward-master,  Sanitary  and  Christian 
commission  agent,  librarian,  section-master,  steward,  and 
commissary  clerk.  On  returning  to  New  Hampshire,  he 
married,  August  10,  Sarah  J.  Vose  of  Claremont.  He 
carried  on  a  farm  at  Newport  until  1884,  when  he  moved 
to  Meriden,  his  present  residence,  where  the  comrades 
of  the  Ninth  will  always  receive  a  hearty  welcome. 


JOHN    MOONEY. 

Lieut.  John  Mooney,  of  Company  A,  Ninth  New 
Hampshire  volunteers,  was  born  in  Holderness  village 
(now  Ashland),  November  19,  1840.  His  real  name 


7 1 8  NINTH  NE  W  HA  MPSHIRE. 

was  Rufus  M.  Merrill.  His  father  was  John  Mooney 
Merrill,  also  born  in  Holderness,  and  was  in  his  time 
one  of  the  most  prominent  business  men  in  that  town. 
His  mother  was  the  daughter  of  Deacon  Moses  Cheney, 
and  a  sister  of  Gov.  P.  C.  Cheney.  Young  Merrill's 
father  died  in  1857,  and  a  year  or  more  later  he  went 
South,  toThomasville,  Ga.,  where  he  was  employed  upon 
a  railroad.  There  the  Rebellion  caught  him.  Not  being 
able  to  get  through  the  military  lines,  he  was  impressed 
into  the  Confederate  army.  His  regiment  was  stationed 
for  drill  and  guard  duty  at  Fernandina,  Fla. 

Late  in  the  autumn  of  1861  he,  with  a  friend  named 
John  I.  McCarthy,  of  Philadelphia,  who  had  also  been 
impressed,  stole  a  boat  and  put  to  sea.  They  had  but 
little  food  and  only  a  small  supply  of  fresh  water,  and 
with  no  compass  were  soon  out  of  sight  of  land.  They 
drifted  they  knew  not  where.  Their  provisions  and 
water  were  soon  gone.  After  drifting  in  this  manner 
for  several  days,  and  when  nearly  dead  from  hunger 
and  thirst,  a  vessel  came  in  sight  of  them,  which  they 
signalled.  This  proved  to  be  a  United  States  gunboat, 
in  command  of  Captain  Goodon,  afterwards  Commodore 
Goodon.  They  were  taken  aboard,  carried  to  Hilton 
Head,  and  turned  over  to  Gen.  O.  W.  Mitchell,  who, 
after  questioning  them  as  to  the  Confederate  armies  in 
South  Carolina  and  Georgia,  sent  them  to  New  York, 
each  going  from  there  to  his  home.  Merrill  reached  his 
home,  in  his  Confederate  suit,  about  December  20,  1861, 
in  a  feeble  condition. 

The  following  summer,  having  partially  regained  his 
health,  he  enlisted  in  the  Ninth  New  Hampshire  under 
the  name  of  John  Mooney,  was  commissioned  a  lieu 
tenant,  and  went  to  the  front  with  his  regiment.  He 


BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCHES.  719 

served  with  his  regiment  faithfully  (being  closely 
engaged  at  the  Battle  of  Antietam  with  a  Georgia 
regiment),  until  in  1863,  when  stationed  at  Newport 
News,  Va.,  his  health  again  failing,  he  resigned  and 
returned  to  New  Hampshire.  He  afterwards  was 
employed  as  a  clerk  in  Willard's  hotel,  Washington, 
D.  C.,  until  the  summer  of  1866,  when  he  completely 
broke  down  in  health  and  went  to  the  old  home,  where 
on  December  23  of  that  year  he  died  of  consumption. 
The  foundation  of  his  disease  was  undoubtedly  laid  in 
the  sufferings  incident  to  his  bold  escape  from  the  Con 
federate  service. 

Lieutenant  Mooney  was  a  true  patriot,  a  genial  com 
panion,  and  had  friends  wherever  he  was  known.  At 
Willard's  hotel  he  often  met  Commodore  Goodon,  who 
was  his  friend  during  his  life.  He  was  never  married, 
and  his  remains  lie  in  Green  Grove  cemetery,  at  Ash 
land,  beside  those  of  his  father  and  mother. 


GEORGE  t\V.  MORTON. 


"The  little  drummer  of  Company  F"  was  the  more 
familiar  cognomen  of  George  W.  Morton  during  his 
term  of  service  with  the  regiment.  He  was  born  in 
Gloucester,  Mass.,  and  was  living  in  South  Newmarket 
with  his  parents  when  the  war  broke  out.  Enthusiasm 
ran  high  in  the  village,  until  even  mere  boys  began  to 
feel  that  they,  too,  were  needed  for  the  defence  of  their 
country.  It  was  not  until  the  summer  of  1862,  however, 
that  young  Morton  could  gain  his  parents'  consent  to 
enlist.  He  was  a  little  fellow,  not  quite  five  feet  in 
height  and  tipping  the  scale  at  one  hundred  and  one 
pounds.  During  the  school  vacation  that  year  he  was 


7  20  NINTH  NE  W  HAMPSHIRE. 

working  in  a  brass  foundry,  learning  to  make  cores  for 
castings.  Having  gained  his  father's  consent,  the  next 
thing  was  to  enlist,  and  one  night  after  working  hours 
were  over  he  and  an  equally  enthusiastic  companion, 
George  T.  Armstrong,  of  Company  D,  walked  to  Exeter, 
a  distance  of  five  miles,  where  Captain  Pillsbury  had  a 
recruiting  office.  Arriving  late  in  the  evening,  they  at 
once  sought  the  captain ;  but  what  was  their  dismay 
when,  after  a  brief  inspection,  they  were  pronounced 
"too  small."  However,  they  were  permitted  to  share 
the  comforts  of  a  bare  floor  with  a  company  of  recruits 
that  night,  and  the  next  morning  walked  home.  Cap 
tain  Pillsbury  had  spoken  of  a  recruiting  office  which 
his  brother,  Lieutenant  Pillsbury,  was  managing  in 
Manchester,  and  the  young  enthusiasts  resolved  to  make 
another  try.  They  went  to  Manchester  the  following 
day,  and  Lieutenant  Pillsbury  stretched  a  point  and 
enlisted  them.  About  a  week  later  the  recruits  were 
ordered  to  report  at  Manchester  for  duty,  and  Morton 
and  Armstrong  were  turned  over  to  Drum-Major  Adams. 
Their  first  taste  of  military  life  was  a  march  from  Man 
chester  to  Milford,  where  they  remained  some  four  weeks 
before  being  ordered  to  Concord.  Armstrong  was  with 
the  regiment  during  its  entire  term  of  service,  and  died 
in  StrafFord,  December  31,  1887.  Morton  was  dis 
charged  for  disability  at  Newport  News,  in  February, 
1863,  and  is  now  living  at  Berlin,  Wis. 


WILLIAM    PITT    MOSES. 


As  the  son  of  Theodore  B.  and  Mary  S.  Moses,  the 
subject  of  this  sketch  became  an  inhabitant  of  the  good 
old  town  of  Exeter  on  the  I5th  of  December,  1826. 


BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCHES.  721 

Early  in  1833  the  family  moved  to  Somersworth,  where 
the  father  was  in  the  employ  of  the  Great  Falls  Manu 
facturing  company,  as  chief  clerk  and  paymaster. 
Young  Pitt  (as  he  was  more  familiarly  known  among 
his  comrades)  attended  the  public  schools  at  Somers 
worth  until  he  was  fourteen,  and  then  entered  the 
counting-room  under  his  father,  there  to  fill,  in  the 
course  of  time,  the  respective  positions  of  office  boy, 
assistant  clerk,  and  assistant  paymaster,  until  the  clos 
ing  of  the  mills  in  the  fall  of  1861. 

In  May,  1862,  he  enlisted,  and  was  assigned  to  the 
Ninth  New  Hampshire,  then  forming  at  Concord,  being 
detailed  as  commissary  of  the  camp.  Quartermaster 
Moses  went  to  the  front  with  the  Ninth,  remained  with 
it  during  its  entire  term  of  service,  with  the  exception  of 
one  furlough  often  days,  and  was  mustered  out  with  the 
regiment  at  Concord,  June  10,  1865.  During  his  term 
of  service  at  the  front,  he  was  several  times  detailed  as 
acting  brigade  and  division  quartermaster  in  the  absence 
of  the  duly  commissioned  officers,  in  every  capacity 
winning  the  high  commendations  of  his  superiors  by 
the  energy  and  efficiency  with  which  he  executed  the 
duties  pertaining  to  his  department.  In  the  famous 
march  of  the  regiment  across  the  Cumberland  moun 
tains,  in  March,  1864,  Quartermaster  Moses  accom 
plished  what  had  been  declared  at  head-quarters  as  an 
impossibility, — the  safe  transmission  of  his  teams  over 
the  treacherous  mountain  roads  of  early  spring. 

At  the  close  of  the  war  he  returned  to  Somersworth, 
and  was  chief  clerk  and  paymaster  of  the  Great  Falls 
Manufacturing  company  until  March,  1877.  For  a 
year  he  served  as  special  justice  of  the  Somersworth 
police  court,  resigning  in  1878.  He  was  collector  of 


XL,  VI 


722  NINl'H  NE  W  HAMPSHIRE. 


taxes  for  Somersworth  in  1877  an^  1878,  and  repre 
sented  the  town  in  the  state  legislature  for  the  same 
years.  In  1878  he  was  one  of  the  commissioners  for 
Strafford  county,  but  declined  to  make  any  effort  look 
ing  to  a  renomination.  At  the  annual  town  meetings 
he  became  a  familiar  figure,  serving  his  fellow-towns 
men  as  moderator  fourteen  times  between  1858  and  1877. 
His  name  is  recorded  among  the  charter  members  of 
Littlefield  post,  No.  8,  G.  A.  R.,  of  Somersworth,  and 
from  1868  to  1876  inclusive  he  served  as  its  comman 
der. 

In  1879  he  received  an  appointment  as  deputy  under 
Sheriff  John  Greenfield  of  Rochester,  and  was  reap- 
pointed  in  1881.  He  was  also  engaged  in  the  fire  insur 
ance  business,  in  connection  with  Hon.  William  D. 
Knapp  of  Somersworth,  during  the  years  1877  to  1882. 
In  October,  1882,  he  was  appointed  captain  of  the  watch 
at  the  Portsmouth  navy  yard,  and  served  in  that  capac 
ity  two  years,  and  two  years  as  clerk  in  the  comman 
dant's  office,  when  his  resignation  was  asked  for  by  Sec 
retary  of  the  Navy  William  C.  Whitney.  The  resigna 
tion  was  at  once  tendered  and  accepted,  taking  effect 
November  i,  1886. 

From  1855,  when  he  had  married  Miss  Frances  Ellen 
Blake  of  Somersworth,  up  to  the  time  of  his  leaving  the 
navy  yard,  Captain  Moses  had  made  his  home  in  that 
town  ;  but  in  December,  1886,  he  moved  to  Boston, 
Mass.,  and  was  employed  as  a  clerk  in  the  freight 
department  of  the  western  division  of  the  Boston  & 
Maine  railroad.  In  May,  1893,  he  retired  from  active 
business,  but  still  serves  his  old  comrades  of  the  Ninth 
New  Hampshire  as  secretary  and  treasurer  of  the  Regi 
mental  association. 


BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCHES,  723 

JAMES    NAGLE. 

Brig.  Gen.  James  Nagle  was  born  in  Reading,  Pa.,  April 
5,  1822.  Even  when  a  youth  his  tastes  were  military.  In 
1842  he  organized,  in  Pottsville,  Pa.,  where  he  resided, 
the  Washington  Artillery  company.  When  war  was 
declared  against  Mexico,  he,  among  the  first,  tendered 
the  services  of  his  company.  They  were  accepted. 
The  company  left  Pottsville,  December  5,  1846,  for 
Pittsburgh,  Pa.,  and  was  mustered  into  the  United 
States  service  as  Company  B,  First  Pennsylvania  regi 
ment,  or  the  second  company  for  the  Keystone  state. 

The  regiment  was  among  the  first  troops  to  land  at 
Vera  Cruz.  The  company  was  one  of  the  four  that 
first  approached  the  city  within  a  few  hundred  yards 
under  cover  of  darkness,  to  clear  away  the  chapparal 
and  enable  a  naval  battery  to  be  planted.  General 
Nagle  was  engaged  during  the  entire  siege  and  ren 
dered  efficient  service.  At  the  Battle  of  Cerro  Gordo 
he  acted  as  major  of  his  regiment  with  distinguished 
ability,  and  received  special  mention  from  his  superior 
officers.  He  advanced  with  the  regiment  to  Perote 
Castle,  where  he  was  stationed  with  three  other  com 
panies  to  preserve  open  communication  between  Vera 
Cruz  and  Pueblo,  while  the  army  under  General  Scott 
was  advancing.  June  20,  1847,  he  and  his  company 
were  engaged  at  Lahoya  in  assisting  General  Cadwal- 
ader  through  the  pass  with  re-enforcements  and  large 
army  trains  of  stores  and  money.  The  pass  was  strongly 
fortified  by  guerrillas,  but  they  were  routed. 

October  9,  1847,  he  and  his  company  were  engaged 
at  Huamantla  ;  on  the  I2th  at  Pueblo,  and  on  the  ipth 
at  Atlixco.  In  each  engagement  the  enemy  was  routed 


724  NINTH  NE  W  HA  MPSHIRE. 

with  heavy  loss.  Subsequently  he  advanced  with  his 
regiment  to  the  City  of  Mexico ;  remained  there  several 
weeks,  and  was  finally  stationed  at  San  Angel  until  the 
close  of  the  war.  The  company  was  mustered  out  of 
the  service  at  Philadelphia,  July  27,  1848,  and  reached 
Pottsville  on  the  28th,  where  it  experienced  an  enthusi 
astic  reception. 

Soon  after  his  return  Captain  Nagle  was  presented 
with  a  most  handsome  sword  by  the  citizens  of  Schuyl- 
kill  county  for  his  gallant  services  in  Mexico.  In  the 
autumn  of  1852  he  was  elected  sheriff  of  Schuylkill 
county  (the  centre  of  the  Molly  Maguire  organization), 
and  subsequently  to  brigade  inspector  and  colonel.  He 
kept  up  the  organization  of  the  Washington  Artillerists 
until  the  commencement  of  the  Rebellion  in  1861,  when 
his  company  was  one  of  the  first  five  companies  to  reach 
Washington  for  its  defence  (April  18),  which  gained  for 
itself  the  name  of  "  The  First  Defenders/' 

Captain  Nagle  was  commissioned  colonel  of  the  Sixth 
Pennsylvania  regiment  by  Governor  Curtin,  for  three 
months.  His  regiment  served  in  the  brigade  of  Col. 
George  H.  Thomas,  General  Patterson's  department. 
Colonel  Nagle  was  engaged  with  his  regiment  in  the 
skirmish  at  Falling  Waters.  He  crossed  the  Potomac 
four  times,  and  advanced  beyond  Martinsburg  and 
Charlestown,  Va.  At  the  termination  of  his  term  of 
service  he  was  highly  complimented  by  General  Patter 
son,  and  received  a  complimentary  order  (No.  16)  from 
his  brigade  commander,  Colonel  Thomas. 

In  a  fortnight  after  his  return  from  the  three  months 
service,  Colonel  Nagle  organized  the  Forty-eighth  Penn 
sylvania  regiment  for  "three  years  or  the  war."  He 
was  commissioned  colonel  of  it  by  Governor  Curtin. 


GEN.  JAMES  NAGLE. 


BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCHES.  725 

He  was  ordered  to  Fortress  Monroe,  and  shortly  after 
his  arrival  there,  was  sent  by  General  Wood  to  Hatteras 
island,  after  General  Williams  had  been  relieved.  He 
was  in  command  of  the  post  four  months.  While  at 
Fortress  Monroe  the  officers  and  members  of  the  late 
Sixth  Pennsylvania  regiment  presented  their  old  colonel 
with  a  very  fine  field-glass,  appropriately  inscribed. 
The  following  letter  accompanied  the  glass  : 

POTTSVILLE,  PA.,  Octobers,  1861. 
COLONEL  JAMES  NAGLE: 

Dear  Sir :  A  number  of  your  friends,  officers  and  privates  of  the 
late  6th  Regt.,  P.  V.,  commanded  by  you  during  the  time  it  was  in 
service,  desire  to  present  the  accompanying  field-glass  for  your 
acceptance,  in  token  of  our  high  personal  esteem,  and  the  exalted 
opinion  we  entertain  of  your  military  knowledge  and  capacity. 

Though  your  characteristic  modesty  may  shrink  from  any  public 
eulogy  of  your  conduct  and  services,  our  gratitude  and  admiration  will 
not  permit  us  to  pass  them  by  without  this  tribute  of  affection  and 
respect. 

For  many  years  past  the  military  spirit  and  organizations  of  Schuyl- 
kill  County  have  been  chiefly  sustained  by  your  exertions.  When  the 
Nation's  honor  was  to  be  maintained  on  the  plains!  of  Mexico,  you, 
with  a  well  disciplined  corps  under  your  command,  sprang  to  arms  and 
hastened  to  the  field  of  conflict ;  in  Cerro  Gordo's  terrific  fight  you 
stood  calm  and  unmoved  amid  the  leaden  storm  of  death  which  fell  on 
every  side,  and  by  your  presence  of  mind  and  courage  saved  many 
gallant  men  from  the  fearful  carnage. 

During  the  long  season  of  peace  which  followed  the  closing  of  that 
war,  in  your  own  quiet  and  happy  home  you  faithfully  discharged  the 
duties  of  a  husband,  father,  and  citizen,  endearing  yourself  both  to 
your  family  and  the  community  in  which  you  dwelt. 

But  now  the  tocsin  of  war  sounds  through  the  land,  and  her  valiant 
sons  are  called  to  defend  her  against  foul  rebellion's  deadly  blows. 
Speedily  a  regiment  of  your  fellow-citizens  take  the  field,  and  confer 
upon  you  the  command.  During  the  three  months  we  served  together, 
though  inflexibly  firm  and  persistently  industrious  in  the  performance 


7  26  NINTH  NE  W  HAMPSHIRE. 

and  requirements  of  every  camp  and  field  duty,  yet  such  was  the  kind 
ness  of  your  demeanor,  and  your  tender  regard  for  the  health,  safety, 
and  comfort  of  your  men,  that  we  regarded  you  rather  as  a  friend  and 
father,  than  as  a  mere  military  commander. 

And  now  that  you  have,  at  the  head  of  a  Schuylkill  County  Regi 
ment  (Pennsylvania  48th),  again  taken  the  field  at  your  country's  call, 
and  may  soon  be  in  the  thickest  of  the  most  eventful  battle  the  world 
has  ever  witnessed,  on  the  issue  of  which  the  destiny  of  human  free 
dom  and  progress  is  suspended,  we  present  you  with  the  accompany 
ing  glass,  as  well  in  token  of  our  esteem  and  admiration,  as  that 
your  eye,  which  never  dimmed  with  fear  as  it  gazed  upon  a  foe,  may 
more  readily  perceive  his  approach  and  prepare  for  victory. 

Praying  that  the  God  of  Battles  may  preserve  you  in  the  midst  of 
danger,  and  return  you  unharmed  to  your  family  and  friends,  when 
our  glorious  Union  shall  be  firmly  re-established,  and  covered  with  still 
more  illustrious  renown. 

We  remain  yours  truly, 

CAPT.  C.  TOWER, 
LT.  COL.  JAS.  J.  SEIBERT, 
MAJ.  J,OHN  E.  WYNKOOP, 
CAPT.   H.  J.  HENDLER, 
LIEUT.  THEO.  MILLER, 
LIEUT.  D.  P.  BROWN, 
and  many  others. 

After  the  capture  of  Roanoke  island,  he,  with  a  por 
tion  of  his  regiment,  accompanied  General  Burnside's 
fleet,  and  was  present  at  the  capture  of  New  Berne, 
N.  C.  Immediately  afterwards  he  was  assigned  by 
Maj.  Gen.  Jesse  L.  Reno  to  the  command  of  the  First 
brigade,  Second  division,  Ninth  Army  corps.  The 
corps  soon  joined  General  Pope.  General  Nagle  was 
engaged  with  his  brigade  in  the  Second  Battle  of  Bull 
Run.  In  an  assault  upon  the  enemy,  made  in  dense 
woods,  when  it  was  impossible  to  remain  mounted  he 
led  his  brigade  on  foot.  His  horse  was  captured  after 
receiving  eight  wounds.  At  this  battle  General  Nagle 


BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCHES. 

greatly  distinguished  himself  by  his  acts  of  personal 
bravery.  He  was  everywhere,  cheering  on  his  men,  and 
barely  escaped  capture.  He  was  ordered  to  halt  by  the 
rebels  several  times,  pursued  and  fired  at,  but  escaped. 

Soon  after  the  battle  General  Reno  recommended  him 
to  the  president  for  promotion  to  brigadier-general. 
General  Reno's  letter  was  as  follows : 

HEAD-QUARTERS  QTH  ARMY  CORPS, 

NEAR  WASHINGTON,  Sept.  7,  1862. 
To  His  Excellency,  the  President  of  the  United  States  : 

SIR:  I  have  the  honor  to  recommend  Col.  James  Nagle,  48th  Regt., 
Pa.  Volt.,  for  promotion  as  Brigadier-General.  Col.  Nagle  has  served 
with  me  with  fidelity  and  ability,  as  commander  of  a  Brigade,  since  the 
Battle  of  New  Berne,  and  in  the  recent  battles  conducted  himself  with 
gallantry,  and  led  his  command  with  judgment  and  discretion. 
I  have  the  honor  to  be, 

Very  respectfully  your  obedient  servant, 
J.  L.  RENO, 

Maj.  Genl.  Commanding. 

The  appointment  was  made. 

General  Nagle  was  subsequently  in  the  battles  of 
Chantilly,  South  Mountain,  and  Antietam,  where  his 
brigade  did  good  work.  During  the  last  named  engage 
ment  General  Nagle's  brigade  was  the  first  to  advance 
upon  the  enemy  at  the  bridge  over  the  Antietam,  and 
when  it  had  expended  all  its  ammunition  the  Second 
brigade  of  the  same  division  relieved  it.  Several  more 
rounds  were  fired,  when  the  enemy  began  to  waver  and 
the  bridge  was  stormed  and  carried.  The  loss  was 
heavy,  but  the  gallant  assault  saved  the  day.  At  Amiss- 
ville,  in  a  skirmish,  General  Nagle,  with  his  brigade, 
drove  the  rebels  finely.  They  were  also  engaged  in  the 
First  Battle  of  Fredericksburg.  The  brigade  fought 


728  NINTH  NE IV  HA  MPSHIRE. 

bravely  under  its  gallant  commander,  and  sustained  a 
heavy  loss. 

Subsequently  the  Ninth  corps  was  detached  from  the 
Army  of  the  Potomac  and  sent  to  Newport  News  to 
recruit.  They  remained  there  for  several  weeks,  and 
were  then  sent  to  Lexington,  Ky.,  where  General  Nagle 
was  in  command  of  the  post  for  a  short  time.  He  was 
then  ordered  to  advance  with  his  brigade  to  Winchester 
to  watch  the  movements  of  the  enemy.  From  there  he 
went  to  Richmond,  Ky.,  Paint  Lick,  and  Lancaster. 
In  May,  1863,  General  Nagle  resigned  on  account 
of  severe  sufferings  from  angina  pectoris.  Upon  ten 
dering  his  resignation,  it  was  received  by  Gen.  S.  D. 
Sturgis,  then  commanding  the  division,  with  regret,  but 
was  finally  approved  and  accepted. 

General  Nagle  issued  a  farewell  address  to  his  troops, 
and  amid  their  regrets  and  with  their  earnest  wishes  for 
the  speedy  recovery  of  his  health,  returned  to  Pennsyl 
vania.  After  having  been  at  home  about  a  month,  rest 
and  absence  from  the  excitement  and  exposure  of  the 
field  had  a  beneficial  effect.  His  health  became  better, 
and  when  General  Lee  commenced  his  invasion  of  Penn 
sylvania  in  June,  1863,  General  Nagle  organized  the 
Thirty-ninth  regiment,  Pennsylvania  volunteers,  for  the 
emergency,  and  was  commissioned  colonel  by  Governor 
Curtin.  He  was  mustered  into  the  service  on  July  4, 
1863,  and  proceeded  to  the  front  at  once.  On  his  arrival 
there  General  Couch  immediately  assigned  him  to  the 
command  of  a  brigade  composed  of  six  regiments  and 
one  battery,  numbering  some  4,800  men.  He  was 
mustered  out  of  the  service  August  2,  1863. 

When,  in  1864,  a  call  was  made  for  the  hundred  days 
service,  General  Nagle,  with  characteristic  promptness 


BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCHES.  729 

and  energy,  organized  the  One  Hundred  Ninety-fourth 
Pennsylvania  regiment,  of  which  he  was  commissioned 
colonel  by  Governor  Curtin,  July  21,  1864.  He  was 
ordered  to  Baltimore.  On  his  arrival  General  Wallace 
directed  him  to  report  to  General  Lockwood,  commander 
of  the  Third  separate  brigade,  who  assigned  General 
Nagle  to  the  command  of  all  the  troops  at  Mankin's 
Woods — about  8,000  men.  He  guarded  some  of  the 
approaches  to  the  city  until  the  expiration  of  his  term  of 
service,  when  he  was  relieved  and  returned  with  his 
regiment  to  Harrisburg,  and  was  mustered  out  Novem 
ber  5,  1864. 

He  died  at  Pottsville,  Pa.,  August  22,  1866,  forty- 
four  years  of  age — a  comparatively  young  man.  Gen 
eral  Nagle's  services  in  the  Rebellion  will  ever  be 
remembered  with  gratitude,  not  only  by  the  people  of 
Schuylkill  county,  but  by  the  state  and  nation  at  large, 
who  owe  the  preservation  of  their  liberties  to  the  self- 
sacrificing  devotion  of  men  like  him. 


ENOCH    C.  PAIGE. 

Born  in  Antrim,  and  always  a  resident  of  that  flourish 
ing  town,  Enoch  C.  Paige  was  mustered  into  Company 
G,  August  14,  1862,  and  was  discharged,  on  account 
of  disability,  at  Camp  Dennison,  O.,  December,  1863. 
When  he  was  sent  to  the  hospital,  expecting  to  die,  he 
had  been  for  some  time  acting  as  mounted  orderly  at  the 
head-quarters  of  the  First  brigade,  Second  division,  Ninth 
army  corps.  After  leaving  the  service,  Comrade  Paige 
recovered  his  health,  and  became  a  manufacturer  of  rock 
ing  and  swing  cradles  at  Antrim. 


7 30  NINTH  NE  W  HAMPSHIRE. 

MINOT    R.   PHILLIPS. 

In  Company  I  there  was  a  private,  Minot  R.  Phillips, 
who  was  one  of  five  brothers  who  saw  service  in  the 
Civil  War, — two,  Minot  and  Joseph,  on  the  Union  side; 
two,  Rufus  and  Simeon,  in  the  Confederate  ranks;  and 
one,  Judson,  as  a  "  home  guard"  in  Missouri.  The  last 
had  not  enlisted  in  either  army.  The  two  who  went  into 
the  Confederate  service  were  in  Missouri  regiments,  and 
so  was  Joseph,  though  his  was  for  the  Union.  These 
brothers  were  all  born  in  Cheshire  county,  where  they 
are  still  well  remembered.  Rufus  is  the  only  one  now 
living.  Minot  R.  was  born  in  Roxbury,  mustered  in 
August  15,  1862,  and  died  at  Aquia  Creek,  Va.,  January 
30,  1863. 


LEONARD    H.  PILLSBURY. 

Although  in  1855,  in  the  early  settlement  of  Kansas, 
Leonard  H.  Pillsbury  had  carried  one  of  "  Beecher's  " 
rifles,  fifty  of  which  were  donated  by  that  eminent  divine 
for  the  purpose  of  making  Kansas  a  free  state,  yet  he 
was  more  than  anything  else  "  a  peace  man."  Nothing 
but  just  such  vital  matters  of  principle  as  were  in  ques 
tion  in  both  the  settlement  of  Kansas  and  in  the  struggle 
for  the  preservation  of  the  Union  and  the  abolition  of 
slavery,  could  by  any  possibility  have  caused  him  to 
exchange  the  garb  of  a  student  for  the  uniform  of  a  sol 
dier.  Indeed  his  experience  in  Kansas  and  on  the  fron 
tier  had  caused  the  postponement  of  his  efforts  to  obtain 
an  academic  education  to  a  later  period,  so  that  the 
breaking  out  of  the  war  found  him  earnestly  struggling 
with  the  problems  of  Euclid  and  the  roots  of  Greek  verbs 
at  Phillips  Exeter  academy. 


CHARLES  BOHONNAN,  OF  THE  BAND.  COM.  SERGT.  HOWARD  M.  HANSON. 


I.  M.  SERGT.  CHARLES  P.  HILL.  CAPT.  LEONARD  H.  PILLSEURY,  Co.  A. 


BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCHES.  731 

In  May,  1862,  young  Pillsbury  responded  to  President 
Lincoln's  call  "for  three  hundred  thousand"  by  enlist 
ing  as  a  private  and  taking  leave  of  the  venerable  Dr. 
Soule,  who  for  fifty  years  had  directed  the  great  educa 
tional  institution  at  Exeter.  But  he  did  not  go  unac 
companied,  for  from  the  160  students  pursuing  the 
curriculum  there,  eight  or  ten  soon  joined  their  school 
mate  in  the  camp  of  volunteers  at  Concord.  The  Ninth 
regiment  filled  up  very  slowly,  and  it  was  not  till  August 
that  the  entire  regiment  was  mustered  into  the  service 
of  the  United  States.  It  was  during  this  interval  that 
Governor  Berry,  probably  by  the  advice  of  Adjutant- 
General  Colby,  issued  a  captain's  commission  to  L.  H. 
Pillsbury.  It  was  the  first  issued  to  any  line  officer  of 
the  regiment,  and  he  was  placed  in  command  of  Com 
pany  A.  One  of  the  Exeter  students  who  accom 
panied  him,  L.  H.  Caldwell,  became  first  sergeant, 
and  Charles  J.  Simonds,  now  a  physician  in  Chicago, 
second  sergeant. 

There  is  something  anomalous  about  the  -personnel  of 
the  Union  army.  The  talismanic  words  of  its  great 
chief,  when  he  became  president,  "  Let  us  have  peace," 
mark  a  new  era  in  the  history  of  warfare.  Captain 
Pillsbury  was  "  a  peace  man"  before  he  was  a  soldier, 
and  any  one  can  well  understand  that  he  is  no  less  so 
now  that  the  real  character  of  war  and  its  baneful  influ 
ence  on  thousands  of  thoughtless  minds  is  more  perfectly 
known.  Indeed,  for  twenty-five  years  he  has  been  one 
of  the  vice-presidents  of  the  American  Peace  society, 
and  was  for  some  time  one  of  its  western  secretaries. 
His  first  remembered  lyceum  debate  was  on  the  ques 
tion  of  the  rightfulness  of  war,  and  he  took  the  negative. 
When  teaching  a  district  school  in  the  vicinity  of  the 


732  NINTH  NE  W  HA  M PS  HIRE, 

academy  at  New  London,  he  received  an  invitation,  or 
challenge,  to  a  debate  before  the  students  and  faculty 
of  that  institution  and  the  public,  on  the  resolution 
"That  all  military  establishments  ought  to  be  abol 
ished."  He  took  the  affirmative,  and  J.  Q..  A.  Brackett, 
since  and  for  two  terms  the  honored  governor  of  the 
commonwealth  of  Massachusetts,  had  the  negative. 
The  affirmative  was  easily  maintained  at  that  time. 


H.  BAXTER    QUIMBY. 

Moses  A.  Quimby,  a  native  and  life-long  resident  of 
Lisbon,  was  the  father  of  ten  children,  of  whom  the 
captain  of  Company  B  of  the  Ninth  was  one.  Horace 
Baxter  Quimby  was  born  June  17,  1840,  and  enlisted 
at  Lisbon,  August  n,  1862.  He  was  mustered  in  as 
first  sergeant  of  Company  H,  on  the  following  Novem 
ber  was  appointed  second  lieutenant  of  Company  E,  and 
received  the  first  lieutenancy  of  Company  B,  January  i, 
1864.  At  Poplar  Springs  Church  he  was  made  a  pris 
oner  and  sent  to  Libby  prison,  but  escaped  after  a  four 
months  incarceration.  May  i,  1865,  he  was  appointed 
captain,  and  was  mustered  out  June  10,  1865.  Except 
during  his  imprisonment  by  the  Confederates,  Comrade 
Quimby  was  absent  from  his  regiment  but  once  during 
its  term  of  service,  and  at  that  time  was  on  duty,  for  he 
went  North  to  obtain  recruits. 

After  the  volunteer  infantry  had  disbanded,  Captain 
Quimby  received  an  appointment  as  second  lieutenant 
in  the  regular  army  ;  in  1867  was  promoted  to  first  lieu 
tenant,  and  served  as  quartermaster  of  the  Twenty-fifth 
and  Thirty-ninth  infantry  from  February  i,  1868,  to 
September  i,  1877.  On  the  last  day  of  December,  1880, 


CAPT.  H.  BAXTER  QUIMBY,  Co.  B. 


BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCHES.  733 

a  captain's  commission  rewarded  his  faithful  service, 
and  he  was  selected  for  duty  on  the  frontier  as  quarter 
master  of  transportation  for  the  Indian  campaigns.  Cap 
tain  Quimby  was  an  energetic,  capable,  and  kind  officer, 
devoted  to  the  service,  and  possessed  the  confidence  of 
his  superiors  to  an  unusual  degree.  He  died  suddenly 
at  Fort  Snelling,  Minn.,  February  9,  1883,  after  serving 
his  country  continuously  for  twenty-one  years.  His 
widow  now  resides  at  Niles,  Mich. 


OSCAR    D.    ROBINSON. 

Among  the  distinguished  educators  of  the  United 
States  none  is  more  wide-awake,  industrious,  and  pro 
gressive  than  Oscar  D.  Robinson,  Ph.  D.,  principal  of 
the  Albany  (N.  Y.)  high  school.  Comrade  Robinson 
was  born  August  19,  1838,  at  Cornish.  His  father, 
William  S.  D.  Robinson,  and  his  grandfather,  Everett 
Robinson,  were  natives  of  the  same  town.  His  great 
grandfather,  David  Robinson,  served  in  the  Revolution 
ary  War,  and  after  living  to  a  great  age  was  laid  to  rest, 
about  the  year  1852,  by  his  fellow-citizens  of  Cornish. 

W.  S.  D.  Robinson  married  Zelpha  Clement,  of  the 
well  known  Clement  family  which  held  a  reunion  in 
Boston,  Mass.,  some  few  years  ago.  Oscar  D.  Robin 
son's  earliest  years  were  passed  on  the  homestead  farm 
and  in  the  district  school.  In  1859  ne  became  a  student 
of  Kimball  Union  academy  at  Meriden,  from  which 
institution  he  was  graduated  in  July,  1862,  the  valedic 
torian  of  his  class.  It  had  been  his  intention  to  continue 
his  studies  at  college,  but  the  urgent  need  of  the  Union 
for  more  troops  at  the  front  appealed  to  his  patriotic 
impulses,  and  he  was  mustered  into  Company  E  as  ser- 


734  NINTH  NE IV  HA  M PS  HI  RE. 

geant,  August  6,  1862.  By  his  own  meritorious  quali 
ties  as  a  true  soldier  Comrade  Robinson  rose  by  succes 
sive  grades  to  the  rank  of  captain,  and  was  engaged 
with  the  regiment  in  all  its  battles,  except  one,  down  to 
the  close  of  the  war,  but  came  out  without  receiving  a 
wound. 

The  Rebellion  finished,  Captain  Robinson  returned  to 
the  prosecution  of  his  literary  course,  which  had  been 
interrupted  so  suddenly,  and  in  the  autumn  of  1865 
entered  Dartmouth  college,  from  which  he  was  grad 
uated  with  honor  four  years  later.  That  same  year, 
1869,  he  went  to  Albany,  where  for  more  than  a  quarter 
of  a  century  he  has  lived,  a  useful  citizen  and  an  orna 
ment  to  the  cause  of  higher  education.  At  first  he  was 
the  professor  of  English  literature  and  mathematics  in 
the  Albany  academy,  but  the  professorship  of  the  nat 
ural  sciences  in  the  Free  academy,  now  the  high  school, 
was  offered  to  him  less  than  a  year  later,  which  offer 
was  accepted.  This  professorship  was  subsequently 
exchanged  for  that  of  Latin  and  Greek  in  the  same 
institution.  His  excellent  classical  scholarship,  and  his 
rare  faculty  for  imparting  its  rich  lore  to  the  minds  of 
his  pupils,  made  him  very  popular  in  the  work  of  his 
chosen  field,  and  there  he  continued  to  labor  until  1886, 
when  he  was  elected  principal,  a  position  which  he  fills 
with  great  acceptance  and  ability  ;  and  that,  too,  in  a 
school  with  a  faculty  of  thirty  members,  and  standing 
in  the  very  foremost  rank  of  the  high  schools  of  the 
Empire  state. 

Oscar  D.  Robinson  is  a  member  of  the  Grand  Arm}^ 
of  the  Republic  and  of  the  Masonic  fraternity.  He  is 
associated  with  the  Congregational  church.  In  1887 
he  received  the  degree  of  Ph.  D.  from  Dartmouth  col- 


BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCHES.  735 

lege.  In  1892  he  was  appointed  by  the  National  Edu 
cational  association  on  the  "  Committee  of  Ten,"  of 
which  the  president  of  Harvard  university  was  chair 
man.  The  report  of  this  committee,  which  has  been 
printed  and  distributed  by  the  United  States  govern 
ment,  attracted  wide  notice  in  this  country  and  in 
Europe.  In  1870,  Comrade  Robinson  married  Miss 
Jennie  M.  Rawel,  of  Madison,  Wis.  They  have  one 
child,  Mary,  a  graduate  of  the  Albany  high  school. 


HENRY  O.  SARGENT. 

Henry  O.  Sargent,  late  lieutenant  of  Company  E,  was 
a  native  of  Concord,  where  he  was  born  in  1837.  He 
learned  his  trade  as  a  machinist  in  Manchester,  and 
soon  after  his  marriage  to  Miss  Sophia  T.  Heath, 
which  occurred  early  in  1860,  he  settled  in  Wilton.  He 
answered  the  war  call  early,  being  among  the  first  to 
enlist  for  three  months.  Later,  when  the  Ninth  was 
organized,  he  was  commissioned  second  lieutenant  of 
Company  E,  and  served  with  his  regiment  in  its  terrible 
baptism  of  fire,  at  Antietam,  Fredericksburg,  in  the 
Mississippi  campaign,  and  at  Knoxville  ;  until  Decem 
ber,  1863,  when  he  resigned,  having  been  obliged  to 
succumb  to  the  effects  of  the  hardships  and  privations 
of  the  campaign.  Returning  to  Wilton,  and  having 
partially  recovered  his  health  (he  never  did  wholly), 
in  1866  he  purchased  a  mill,  and  for  years  furnished 
turned  wood  supplies  for  the  Briggs  Piano  Stool  com 
pany  of  Peterborough.  December  10,  1877,  he  was 
appointed  postmaster,  and  filled  the  position  to  the  entire 
satisfaction  of  the  patrons  of  the  office  until  his  death, 


736  NINTH  NE  W  HA MPSHIRE. 

April  24,  1893.  He  was  a  thorough  student,  and 
enjoyed  keeping  abreast  with  the  progress  of  modern 
thought.  A  charter  member  of  Post  Abiel  A.  Liver- 
more,  he  also  served  as  its  first  adjutant.  As  a  citizen 
he  was  faithful  to  what  he  believed  his  duty,  constant  to 
his  home  and  friends,  and  truly  loyal  to  the  principles 
of  the  order  in  which  he  was  proud  to  be  numbered. 


AARON    W.    SHEPARD. 

A  young  man  of  twenty-one,  with  the  above  name, 
born  at  Biddeford,  Me.,  though  a  resident  of  Nashua, 
went  into  the  service  with  the  Ninth  as  its  hospital  stew 
ard,  but  was  discharged  December  14,  1864,  to  accept 
promotion  as  assistant  surgeon  of  the  Eighteenth  regi 
ment,  New  Hampshire  volunteers.  His  muster-in  to 
the  new  position  was  opposed  by  some  of  the  powers 
that  were,  on  the  ground  that  he  was  not  a  graduate  in 
medicine,  but  the  friends  of  Surgeon  Shepard  insisted 
so  strongly  upon  his  receiving  what  his  ability  and 
merit  demanded,  that  the  muster-in  was  finally  per 
mitted.  This  has  been  said  to  be  the  first  instance  of 
a  non-graduate  being  mustered  into  the  Army  of  the 
Potomac  as  surgeon  or  assistant  surgeon. 

Comrade  Shepard  was  subsequently  detached  from  the 
Eighteenth,  and  assigned  to  the  sole  medical  charge 
of  General  Robertson's  Flying  Artillery  brigade,  where 
he  was  the  only  volunteer  officer  on  the  staff',  all  the 
others  being  regulars.  At  the  close  of  the  war  he 
continued  his  studies,  was  graduated  in  1866,  and 
has  been  in  active  practice  in  Brooklyn,  N.  Y.,  ever 
since. 


A.  WARNER  SHEPARD,  M.  D.,  HOSPITAL  STEWARD. 


BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCHES.  737 

LEWIS    SIMONDS. 

This  member  of  the  regimental  and  brigade  band  was 
born  in  Antrim.  In  1862  he  was  residing  in  Nashua, 
where  he  enlisted  as  private,  but  was  detailed  as  a 
musician,  and  served  with  great  fidelity  throughout 
the  war.  Returning  to  Antrim  he  lived  there  quietly, 
gaining  the  love  and  respect  of  all  who  knew  him,  but 
died  suddenly,  October  29,  1893,  from  paralysis,  com 
plicated  by  heart  trouble  and  the  malaria  contracted 
during  his  army  life.  He  left  a  widow,  one  son,  and 
two  daughters. 


BAXTER   P.    SMITH. 

Baxter  Perry  Smith,  son  of  Moses  and  Mehitable 
(Ward)  Smith,  was  born  in  Lyme,  August  29,  1829. 
He  fitted  for  college  at  the  Thetford  (Vt.)  academy,  and 
was  graduated  from  Dartmouth  college  in  1854.  From 
1854  to  ^i  ne  was  a  colporteur  of  the  American  Tract 
society.  In  1861  and  the  early  months  of  1862  he 
assisted  Rev.  Dr.  G.  T.  Chapman  in  the  preparation  of 
the  latter's  "  Sketches  of  the  Alumni  "  of  Dartmouth, 
but  left  that  work  August  15,  1862,  to  be  mustered  in 
as  a  private  of  Company  F.  He  remained  with  the 
regiment  until  February  6,  1863,  when  he  was  dis 
charged  at  Falmouth  on  account  of  disability.  From 
1863  to  1867  he  again  assisted  Dr.  Chapman  as  much 
as  his  health  permitted,  and  was  afterwards  in  business 
at  New  York  city  as  a  collector  and  real  estate  agent. 
While  at  the  metropolis  he  published  a  work  of  his  own 
entitled  "The  Credit  Guide."  From  1875  he  resided  at 


XLVII 


738  NINTH  NE  W  HAMPSHIRE. 

Brookline,  Mass.,  engaged  in  varied  literary  work. 
In  1878  he  brought  out  a  '*  History  of  Dartmouth  Col 
lege."  Comrade  Smith  died  of  pulmonary  disease, 
February  6,  1884,  at  Washington,  D.  C.  He  was 
unmarried. 


ORVILLE  SMITH. 

In  the  beautiful  National  cemetery  at  Marye's  heights 
reposes  everything  material  that  remains  of  Captain 
Orville  Smith  and  some  of  the  brave  men  who  followed 
him  at  Spottsylvania  Court-house,  May  12,  1864.  But 
the  deeds  and  sterling  character  of  this  courageous 
officer  live  in  the  memory  of  each  one  who  knew  him. 
Orville  Smith  was  born  in  Lempster,  March  n,  1832, 
the  fifth  son  of  Hon.  Alvah  Smith.  Thirty  years  later 
he  left  a  lucrative  and  congenial  position  as  principal  of 
Hopkinton  academy  to  be  mustered  in  August  18,  1862, 
as  first  lieutenant  of  Company  G.  November  i,  1863, 
he  was  appointed  captain  of  Company  B.  It  was  he  who 
was  detailed  to  take  the  body  of  Major  Everett  from 
Cincinnati  to  New  London,  which  task  was  performed 
in  fifty  hours.  During  his  stay  in  Kentucky  Captain 
Smith  was  often  detailed  on  courts-martial,  frequently  as 
president. 

ALBERT  H.  TAFT. 

At  the  time  of  President  Lincoln's  first  call  for  volun 
teers  Albert  H.  Taft  was  a  student  at  Kimball  Union 
academy.  His  elder  brother,  Edward  N.  Taft,  was  then 
living  in  Keene,  and  feeling  sure  that  he  would  be 
among  the  first  to  enlist,  young  Taft  determined  to  keep 


CORP.  ALBERT  H.  TAFT,  Co.  E. 


BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCHES.  739 

him  company.  Arriving  at  Keene,  he  found  Capt.  T.  A. 
Barker 'of  Westmoreland  had  enlisted  and  was  drilling  a 
company  then  known  as  the  Cheshire  Light  guards, 
which  was  subsequently  mustered  into  the  service  as 
Company  A  of  the  Second  regiment.  -  In  this  the  elder 
brother  had  enlisted,  but  he  strongly  opposed  Albert's 
going  as  a  soldier,  saying  that  one  was  enough  to  take 
from  a  family,  and  advised  him  to  return  to  his  studies. 
This  he  finally  consented  to  do,  but  with  his  mind  fully 
made  up  that  if  his  brother's  place  ever  became  vacant 
he  would  go  in  his  stead.  He  had  only  a  year  to  wait, 
for  at  the  Battle  of  Williamsburg,  May  5,  1862,  Edward  N. 
Taft  laid  down  his  life  on  the  battle-field,  cut  in  two  by 
a  cannon  shot.  Writing  to  his  father,  Captain  Barker 
said  of  him, — "  He  was  a  noble  man,  a  good  soldier,  and 
fought  bravely  to  the  last." 

July  29,  1862,  Albert  announced  to  his  father  his  deter 
mination  to  enlist  in  the  Ninth  regiment.  Believing  him 
to  be  physically  unable  to  endure  the  hardships  of  a 
soldier's  life,  the  father  at  first  withheld  his  consent,  but 
finally  said, — "  If  you  go  I  shall  expect  you  to  do  your 
duty.  I  would  rather  know  you  had  gone  with  your 
brother  than  that  you  should  come  back  without  an  hon 
orable  record."  The  young  volunteer  at  once  set  out  for 
Lebanon,  where  he  promptly  enrolled  himself,  and  was 
greatly  pleased  to  find  that  several  of  his  schoolfellows 
from  Meriden  had  enlisted  in  the  same  regiment.  A  few 
last  days  at  home,  and  then  the  fortunes  of  the  camp  and 
field.  As  corporal  of  Company  E,  Comrade  Taft  ren 
dered  efficient  service  in  the  battles  of  South  Mountain, 
Antietam,  and  Fredericksburg,  but  during  the  winter  at 
Falmouth,  when  the  measles  made  such  havoc  in  the 
regiment,  he  was  one  of  the  first  victims.  He  was  ill  for 


7  40  NINTH  NE  W  HA  MPSHIRE. 

months,  and  was  finally  discharged,  November  13, 
1863,  broken  down  in  health  and  suffering  from  a  bad 
cough,  but  after  a  period  of  rest  at  home  had  recovered 
sufficiently  so  that  he  felt  he  might  return  and  at  least  be 
able  to  do  hospital  work.  He  carried  out  his  plan,  and 
was  engaged  in  this  service  until  the  close  of  the  war. 

In  August,  1865,  he  entered  the  medical  department 
of  Dartmouth  college.  The  two  following  years  he 
attended  lectures  at  Bowdoin  college,  graduating  from 
that  institution  in  1867.  For  nearly  thirty  years  he  has 
followed  his  chosen  profession,  and  the  historian  of 
Hancock,  where  he  was  located  until  1872,  speaks  of 
him  as  "very  successful."  For  the  last  twenty-three 
years  he  has  been  an  honored  resident  of  Winchester. 
He  is  a  member  of  the  state  and  local  medical  societies, 
has  served  -on  the  board  of  education,  both  in  Hancock 
and  Winchester,  and  has  been  a  member  of  the  Masonic 
fraternity  for  some  thirty  years.  He  is  also  a  comrade 
of  Edward  N.  Taft  post,  No.  19,  G.  A.  R.,  it  having 
been  so  named  in  honor  of  his  brother.  In  1866  Com 
rade  Taft  married  M.  Lovett  Atherton,  of  Winchester, 
and  has  had  four  sons  born  to  him.  The  oldest,  Albert 
A.,  followed  in  his  father's  footsteps,  and  is  now  house 
officer  at  St.  Elizabeth's  hospital,  Boston,  Mass.  Two 
died  in  early  childhood,  and  the  youngest,  DeForest  R., 
is  a  student  at  the  New  Hampshire  College  of  Agricul 
ture  and  the  Mechanic  Arts. 


HERBERT    B.  TITUS. 

Colonel    and    Brevet    Brigadier-General     Herbert    B. 
Titus  was  residing   in  Chesterfield,  his   native  town,  at 


BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCHES.  741 

the  commencement  of  the  war.  He  was  the  youngest 
son  of  Col.  Ezra  Titus,  a  farmer  who  got  his  title  as 
colonel  of  a  militia  regiment,  and  as  "once  a  colonel 
always  a  colonel,"  the  son  came  to  be  familiarly  known 
among  his  townsmen  as  ''the  young  colonel."  The 
father,  though  mainly  self-taught,  had  been  in  his  local 
ity  and  his  sphere  the  famous  school-teacher  of  his  time, 
both  as  a  disciplinarian  and  instructor,  and  it  is  but  just 
to  say  that  to  no  teacher  does  the  son  acknowledge  him 
self  more  indebted  than  to  that  father,  who  thoroughly 
grounded  him,  when  twelve  years  old,  in  the  principles 
of  grammar  and  arithmetic,  the  instruction  being  given 
mainly  when  husking  together  in  the  barn,  by  the  dim 
light  of  an  old-time  tin  lantern. 

Ezra  Titus  was  the  youngest  of  ten  children  of  Deacon 
Joseph  Titus,  who  came  to  Chesterfield  from  Douglas, 
Mass.,  in  1777,  soon  after  his  marriage  there  to  Mary 
Bigelow,  who  was  of  the  family  of  that  name  that  has 
produced  some  eminent  men  in  that  state,  including  a 
chief-justice  of  her  supreme  court.  Ezra  was  fourth  in 
descent  from  Robert  Titus,  who  came  from  Hertfordshire, 
Eng.,  in  1635,  and  from  whom,  so  far  as  known,  all  of 
the  name  in  this  country  are  descended,  except  those 
from  a  Dutch  ancestor  of  New  Utrecht,  L.  I.,  who 
Anglicized  his  name  from  Tityus.  The  immigrant  was  a 
younger  brother  of  the  Colonel  Titus  of  Cromwell's 
army,  mentioned  by  Hume  and  Macaulay  as  prominent 
in  the  politics  of  those  troublous  times.  This  original 
Colonel  Titus  afterwards  espoused  the  cause  of  King 
Charles  II,  and  on  the  occasion  of  an  attempt  on  the  life 
of  the  Lord  Protector  wrote  anonymously  the  famous 
tract  entitled  "Killing  no  Murder,"  which  created  such 
a  sensation  at  the  time,  and  is  characterized  in  Howell's 


742  NINTH  NE  W  HA  MPSHIRE. 

"  State  Trials  "as  ''that  most  able,  logical,  artificially 
constructed,  and  occasionally  eloquent,  treatise."  Col. 
Ezra  Titus  married  Electa  Kneeland,  daughter  of  John 
Kneeland,  Esq.,  also  an  early  settler  in  Chesterfield. 
He  came  from  Gardner,  Mass.,  and  was  a  brother  of 
Abner  Kneeland,  the  famous  self-taught  preacher,  edi 
tor,  and  Bible  translator. 

At  the  age  of  fourteen  Herbert  B.,  who  would  then 
readily  have  passed  for  eighteen  or  more,  taught  his  first 
school  of  forty  scholars,  sixteen  of  whom  were  older 
than  himself,  and  with  such  success  that  his  services 
were  again  sought  for  the  same  school.  At  sixteen  he 
expressed  a  wish  to  go  to  Norwich  university,  the  then 
well  known  military  school  at  Norwich,  Vt.,  to  which 
his  father's  reply  was,  "  I've  been  through  with  a  mili 
tary  experience.  It  takes  time  and  money,  and  amounts 
to  nothing  in  these  times.  We  are  never  going  to  have 
any  war," — a  refusal  that  both  had  occasion  to  remem 
ber  and  regret.  Teaching  and  work  upon  the  farm 
alternated  with  study  at  the  academy  at  West  Brattle- 
boro,  Vt.,  Chesterfield,  and  Meriden,  where  he  gradu 
ated  in  1854.  He  then  entered  Yale  college,  but  again 
taught,  after  the  close  of  the  first  term,  in  Palmyra, 
N.  Y.,  where  he  remained  until  the  fall  of  1856,  when 
he  resigned  his  position  to  re-enter  college,  which  he 
was  prevented  from  doing  by  a  severe  attack  of  typhoid 
fever.  He  resumed  teaching  and  farming,  and,  in  1859, 
was  appointed  county  commissioner  of  common  schools. 

In  this  position  he  was  holding  a  teachers'  institute 
in  Keene,  in  April,  1861,  when  at  a  county  mass  meet 
ing  in  the  public  square,  called  on  receipt  of  the  news  of 
the  firing  on  Sumter  and  the  call  for  troops,  in  a  brief 
address  of  impassioned  eloquence  he  announced  that  in 


BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCHES.  743 

response  to  the  president's  call  he  was  going.  He  had 
already  headed  the  list  for  a  volunteer  company,  which 
became  Company  A,  of  the  Second  regiment,  and  of 
which  he  was  chosen  second  lieutenant,  the  captain  and 
the  first  lieutenant  having  had  military  experience. 
Lieutenant  Titus's  connection  with  the  Second  ended  July 
i,  1862,  when  he  was  discharged  that  he  might  accept 
the  position  of  major  in  the  Ninth,  to  which  he  had  been 
appointed  June  14,  1862.  He  was  mustered  in  as  major 
August  7,  1862,  and  appointed  lieutenant-colonel  on  the 
20th  of  the  same  month,  and  on  the  resignation  of  Col. 
E.  Q^  Fellows  the  following  November,  received  the 
colonelcy,  which  place  he  held  at  the  muster-out. 
March  13,  1865,  Colonel  Titus  was  brevetted  a  brigadier- 
general  of  United  States  volunteers  for  gallant  and  meri 
torious  services  during  the  war.  He  is  now  practising 
law  in  New  York  city. 


GEORGE    B.    TRACY. 

When,  on  Monday,  June  6,  1864,  George  Boardman 
Tracy  died,  at  Washington,  D.  C.,  from  the  effect  of 
wounds  received  on  the  fatal  I2th  of  May,  at  Spottsyl- 
vania,  every  officer  and  private  of  the  Ninth  New  Hamp 
shire  sustained  a  personal  loss.  The  silent  influence  of 
a  quiet,  courageous,  loving  man's  presence  among  his 
fellows  who  happen  to  be  deprived  temporarily  of  the 
restraining  forces  of  home  life,  or  who  are  subjected  to 
the  demoralizing  tendencies  of  battle  and  bloodshed,  is 
more  potent  for  right  living  and  honorable  conduct  than 
volumes  of  general  orders  or  pronunciamentos. 

Comrade  Tracy  was  a  native  of  Cornish,  but  the  years 


744  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE. 

of  his  manhood  were  passed  mostly  in  Lebanon,  where 
he  enlisted  when  thirty-six  years  old.  He  was  mustered 
in  as  a  corporal  of  Company  E,  much  against  the  wishes 
of  his  friends,  who  desired  him  to  accept  a  commission, 
but  their  alluring  proposals  were  rejected,  because  he 
believed  that  his  inexperience  in  military  affairs  inca 
pacitated  him  for  commissioned  office.  As  corporal  and 
sergeant  he  went  with  his  comrades  into  the  thick  of  the 
fight  at  South  Mountain  and  Antietam,  and  through  the 
horrors  of  Fredericksburg  and  the  doleful  winter  in 
Virginia.  He  was  with  them  in  the  joys  of  Kentucky 
and  the  sorrows  of  the  Mississippi  campaign.  With 
them  he  marched  over  the  mountains  to  Knoxville,  and 
in  their  ranks  entered  Virginia  once  more,  to  be  num 
bered  among  the  severely  wounded  at  Spottsylvania. 
Left  on  the  field  when  the  regiment  fell  back,  he  was 
missed  as  soon  as  the  confusion  of  battle  was  over,  and 
four  or  five,  of  his  comrades,  at  the  risk  of  their  lives, 
sought  him  out  among  the  dead  and  wounded,  and 
carried  him  within  the  Union  lines,  where,  supported  by 
Charles  O.  Hurlbutt,  of  his  company,  he  made  this  entry 
in  his  diary : 

May  12,  1864.  Rainy.  Hardest  day  of  the  battle  as  yet.  Went 
into  battle  early;  was  wounded  at  6:  15  a.  m.  A  Minie  ball  passed 
through  the  middle  of  the  bone  just  above  my  ankle,  which  shattered 
the  bone.  Our  regiment  fell  back,  and  so  ran  over  me  first,  and  then 
the  "  rebs."  Near  where  I  fell  were  two  or  three  knapsacks,  which  I 
used  as  breastworks  to  keep  off  the  bullets  flying  thick  and  fast.  The 
"  rebs"  gave  me  a  couple  more  when  they  came  after  my  ammunition, 
of  which  they  seemed  to  be  short,  so  that  I  had  quite  a  little  fort.  It 
was  not  an  agreeable  position ;  but  God  mercifully  preserved  me. 
After  lying  forty  hours  on  the  same  spot,  I  was  hastily  taken  off  on  a 
blanket  after  dark. 


BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCHES.  745 

It  was  characteristic  of  the  man  to  say  nothing  of  his 
sufferings.  Even  when  in  his  diary  he  wrote  of  himself 
"sick,"  or  "feeling  very  miserable,"  there  was  no 
thought  of  faltering.  No  complaining  came  from  his 
lips.  He  always  kept  a  cheerful  spirit,  and  was  ready 
to  assist  and  cheer  up  the  sick,  the  weary,  and  the  down 
hearted.  He  was  "the  father  of  the  younger  soldiers, 
and  the  faithful  friend  of  all  he  could  benefit."  He  was 
modest,  too.  Though  among  the  bravest  of  the  brave, 
this  is  the  way  he  wrote  of  his  first  experience  in  battle  : 
"  I  stood  fire  better  than  I  expected." 

From  Spottsylvania  he  was  moved  to  Fredericksburg, 
on  the  Tuesday  after  his  foot  had  been  amputated  Satur 
day  night,  and  from  there  to  the  hospital  at  Washington, 
whence  he  passed  calmly,  hopefully,  peacefully,  to  the 
life  beyond. 

CHARLES    W.  UNDERHILL. 

Charles  W.  Underbill,  of  Hopkinton,  N.  H.,  died  of 
apoplexy,  very  suddenly,  Friday,  May  26,  1882,  aged 
sixty-eight  years,  nine  months,  and  seven  days. 

He  was  born  at  Chester,  the  son  of  Moses  and  Rachel 
(Lufkin)  Underbill,  and  was  one  of  a  large  family  of 
children.  When  a  young  lad  he  went  to  East  Concord, 
where  he  made  his  home  with  his  sister,  Mrs.  Betsey 
(Underbill)  Parker.  He  learned  the  trade  of  harness- 
maker  and  carriage  trimmer  with  John  Emerson  of  Con 
cord.  He  worked  at  his  trade  with  the  late  Timothy 
Chandler,  of  Hopkinton,  but  had  been  in  business  in 
Woonsocket,  R.  I.,  and  Millville,  Mass.,  for  several 
years,  when  he  removed  to  Concord,  March  20,  1858. 
In  1862,  though  even  then  forty-nine  years  of  age,  he 


746  NINTH  NE  W  HA  MPSHIRE. 

demonstrated  his  patriotism  by  enlisting  in  Company  F 
of  the  Ninth  regiment,  served  through  the  war,  and  was 
honorably  discharged  June  3,  1865.  He  was  severely 
wounded  in  his  right  arm  at  the  Mine. 

After  leaving  the  service  he  removed  his  family  to 
Hopkinton  village,  having  purchased  the  farm  formerly 
owned  by  Isaac  H.  Chandler.  There  he  lived  amid  the 
pleasantest  surroundings,  his  declining  years  being  fre 
quently  cheered  by  the  presence  of  his  children  and 
grandchildren. 

Comrade  Underbill's  wife  was  Susan  Eastman  Kim- 
ball,  of  Fryeburg,  Me.  They  had  six  children  :  Charles 
F.,  George  F.,  Susan  Maria,  William  P.,  a  prosperous 
druggist  of  Concord,  Ellen  F.,  and  Thomas  B. 


GEORGE    L.   WAKEFIELD. 

George  L.  Wakefield,  mustered  out  as  sergeant  of 
Company  G,  has  a  war  record  simultaneous  with  that  of 
the  regiment.  Born  in  Plymouth,  Vt.,  he  enlisted  at 
Claremont,  July  26,  1862,  at  the  age  of  fifteen,  and  as  a 
private  carried  gun  and  knapsack  with  his  company 
every  day  and  in  every  engagement  up  to  October  i, 
1864,  when  he  was  wounded  in  the  elbow  at  the  Battle  of 
Poplar  Springs  Church,  and  was  ordered  to  the  hospital. 
He  returned  to  his  company  March  19,  1865,  with  which 
he  did  duty  till  June  10,  1865,  having  been  appointed 
sergeant  on  May  i  of  that  year.  During  the  war, 
young  Wakefield  had  read  medicine  with  Dr.  A.  J. 
Moulton,  a  private  of  Company  G,  and  in  1866  went  to 
Wisconsin  to  continue  his  studies  with  Dr.  T.  M.  Simes 
of  Durand.  In  1870  he  was  graduated  from  the  Hahne- 
mann  Medical  college  of  Chicago,  and  pursued  his 


BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCHES.  747 

vocation  in  the  West  until  1888,  when  he  returned  to 
New  Hampshire.  He  is  now  practising  his  profession  at 
Manchester.  As  a  soldier,  George  L.  Wakefield  was 
commended  for  his  poise  in  emergencies,  his  bravery  in 
action,  and  his  rigid  adherence  to  every  demand  of  duty. 
He  was  often  called  to  positions  of  trust  by  his  superiors  at 
critical  times  ;  he  never  complained,  and  though  wounded 
several  times,  never  missed  a  march  or  fight  in  which 
the  Ninth  took  part.  The  same  qualities  of  heart  and 
mind  which  characterized  him  in  the  days  of  '61  to  '65 
have  been  shown  prominently  in  his  after  life,  and  have 
made  him  unusually  successful  in  his  medical  and  surgi 
cal  practice.  To  Dr.  Wakefield  the  Regimental  associa 
tion  owes  the  compilation  of  its  very  complete  necrology? 
and  his  daughter,  Miss  Electa  Wakefield,  has  been  made 
a  daughter  of  the  association,  for  assistance  rendered  her 
father  in  performing  his  duties  as  necrologist  and  in  pre 
senting  to  the  association  a  beautifully  inscribed  necro- 
logical  volume. 


GEORGE    T.  WARD. 

George  T.  Ward,  of  Company  G,  was  born  in  Wash 
ington,  though  credited  to  Charlestown.  He  enlisted 
August  8,  1862,  as  private,  was  mustered  out  June  10, 
1865,  and  passed  to  the  land  beyond  January  14,  1867, 
when  only  twenty-three  years  of  age.  He  was  the  son 
of  Joel  and  Mary  J.  Ward,  who  live  in  North  Charles- 
town,  where  Comrade  Ward  died.  His  mother  writes, — 
44  George  was  a  faithful  soldier.  He  never  left  the  regi 
ment  after  he  enlisted  until  he  was  mustered  out ;  never 
tried  to  dodge  a  battle.  He  began  to  fail  soon  after  he 
came  home." 


7  48  NINTH  NE  W  HAMPSHIRE. 

OSMON    B.  WARREN. 

Comrade  Warren  was  born  September  15,  1845,  at 
Rochester.  He  enlisted  August  I,  1862,  in  Company  H, 
was  appointed  corporal  January  24,  1864,  first  sergeant 
March  19,  1864.  He  engaged  in  the  battles  of  South 
Mountain,  Antietam,  and  Fredericksburg,  was  with  the 
regiment  in  the  Mississippi  campaign,  and  was  in  all  its 
engagements  up  to  and  including  the  Battle  of  Spottsyl- 
vania  Court-house,  when  he  was  captured  and  taken  to 
Andersonville,  arriving  there  May  29.  In  the  latter 
part  of  the  following  October  he  was  taken  to  Charles 
ton,  S.  C.,  and  after  that  to  Florence,  S.  C.,  remaining 
there  until  he  was  paroled,  February  29,  1865.  After 
the  Battle  of  Spottsylvania  he  was  reported  killed,  and 
the  following  notice  appeared  in  the  Rochester  Courier 
May  20,  1864  : 

"Among  the  losses  in  the  Ninth  New  Hampshire 
volunteers  we  notice  the  name  of  First  Sergeant 
Osmon  B.  Warren  as  killed.  The  news  of  young  War 
ren's  death  will  carry  sadness  to  many  hearts.  He  was 
a  young  man  of  worthy  attainments,  the  son  of  Rev. 
James  Warren,  of  this  place,  where  his  untimely  loss 
will  be  regretted  by  a  wide  circle  of  relatives  and  friends. 
He  was  known  and  beloved  as  a  brave  and  resolute  sol 
dier  by  all  his  comrades,  and  will  be  sadly  missed  by 
them.  His  death  is  a  severe  stroke  to  his  parents,  who 
have  sent  three  sons  into  the  army,  and  whose  hearts  are 
made  heavy  by  this  affliction."  A  poem  was  also  written 
on  his  death  by  Capt.  C.  W.  Edgerly  of  his  company. 

After  his  return  from  the  war,  in  March,  1865,  Com 
rade  Warren's  health  was  so  broken  that  he  was  unable 
to  engage  in  any  business  for  a  long  time.  He  was 


BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCHES.  749 

twice  honored  (sessions  of  1875  anc^  1876)  with  a  seat 
in  the  legislature,  serving  each  year  on  the  committee 
on  military  affairs.  He  has  been  commander  of  Samp 
son  post,  No.  22,  G.  A.  R.,  of  Rochester,  for  two  years, 
and  was  appointed  postmaster  of  Rochester  in  April, 
1878,  by  President  Hayes,  and  reappointed  by  Presi 
dent  Arthur.  He  was  made  a  revenue  storekeeper  at 
Portsmouth,  in  January,  1891. 


WILLIAM    A.  WEBSTER. 

William  Ambrose  Webster  was  the  son  of  William  G. 
and  Susan  F.  Webster,  born  in  Rochester,  June  13,  1830. 
Soon  after  his  birth  his  parents  removed  to  Concord, 
where  his  childhood  was  passed.  His  father  died  when 
he  was  nine  years  old,  and  he  was  early  dependent  upon 
his  own  resources.  He  attended  the  public  schools  in 
New  Hampshire,  and  subsequently  fitted  himself  for 
teaching  at  the  State  Normal  school  at  Bridgewater, 
Mass.,  where  he  was  graduated  with  honor  in  1850. 
In  1853  he  was  appointed  principal  of  a  grammar  school 
in  Manchester,  and  held  such  a  position  until  1861.  In 
the  mean  time  he  had  been  engaged,  during  such  time 
as  was  not  occupied  with  his  duties  as  a  teacher,  in 
reading  medicine  with  Dr.  William  Buck,  which  he 
supplemented  by  a  course  in  Long  Island  College  hos 
pital,  Brooklyn,  N.  Y. 

Going  back  to  Manchester  in  the  summer  of  1862, 
before  engaging  in  practice,  he  was  appointed,  July  I, 
1862,  surgeon  of  the  Ninth  regiment,  New  Hampshire 
volunteers.  Dr.  Webster  remained  with  the  Ninth 
regiment  until  the  spring  of  1864,  when  he  was 


750  NINTH  NE  W  HA  MPSHIRE. 

appointed  chief  surgeon  of  the  Second  division  of  the 
Ninth  Army  corps.  He  held  this  office  for  something 
like  a  year,  when  he  was  compelled  by  ill  health  to 
resign  and  return  North.  He  received  his  discharge 
January  5,  1865.  On  his  return  to  Manchester  he  was 
appointed  surgeon  in  the  military  hospital  there,  where 
he  remained  until  it  was  discontinued.  He  then  located 
in  Groton,  Mass.,  where  he  practised  for  three  years. 
From  Groton  he  went  to  Westford,  Mass.,  where  he 
was  for  ten  years.  He  returned  to  Manchester  in  1878. 
The  remainder  of  his  life  was  spent  in  Manchester,  in  as 
active  practice  as  his  health  would  permit. 

He  was  for  several  years  a  member  of  the  board  of 
United  States  pension  examiners.  He  was  a  member 
of  the  school  board,  in  1879,  '80,  '81,  '82,  '83,  and  upon 
the  reorganization  of  the  local  board  of  health  in  1885, 
he  was  appointed  a  member.  At  the  time  of  his  death 
he  was  connected  with  Lafayette  lodge,  F.  and  A.  M., 
and  Louis  Bell  post,  G.  A.  R.  Dr.  Webster  was  twice 
married,  and  had  three  daughters,  two  of  whom  are 
living.  His  death  occurred  February  7,  1887,  and 
resulted  from  malaria,  which  he  contracted  during  his 
army  service,  and  from  which  he  had  been  an  almost 
constant  sufferer  for  twenty  years. 


JOHN  P.  WEBSTER. 

This  comrade,  who  was  then  a  farmer,  died  at  Pena- 
cook,  December  9,  1888,  when  in  his  forty-fifth  year. 
He  was  the  son  of  Ben  P.  and  Anna  (Woods)  Webster, 
and  a  private  of  Company  G  from  the  muster-in  till  Jan 
uary  15,  1864,  when  he  was  transferred  to  the  Ninety- 


BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCHES.  751 

fourth  company,  Second  battalion,  I.  C.  The  cause  of 
death  was  chronic  bronchitis.  Comrade  Webster  was  a 
member  of  W.  I.  Brown  post,  No.  31,  of  Penacook,  and 
of  Contoocook  lodge,  No.  26,  I.  O.  O.  F.  He  left  a 
widow  and  one  child. 


ALBERT  R.  WHEELER. 

A.  R.  Wheeler  enlisted  in  Capt.  J.  W.  Babbitt's 
company  (I)  from  Keene.  He  was  in  the  battles  of 
South  Mountain,  Antietam,  Fredericksburg,  siege  of 
Vicksburg,  Jackson,  Wilderness,  Spottsylvania,  Bethesda 
Church,  Cold  Harbor,  and  Petersburg.  On  the  evening 
of  the  i6th  of  June,  1864,  he  was  wounded  in  the  left 
thigh,  so  badly  that  the  doctors  thought  an  amputation 
unnecessary,  but  he  insisted  upon  it.  After  the  opera 
tion  he  was  removed  to  Washington,  where  he  died 
about  June  25.  At  the  "bloody  angle"  Comrade 
Wheeler,  while  acting  as  color  corporal,  brought  off 
the  United  States  colors  after  the  color  bearer  had  been 
shot. 


SMITH   A.  WHITFIELD. 

Smith  A.  Whitfield  was  born  in  Francestown,  March  24, 
1844.  Up  to  the  breaking  out  of  the  war  he  was  a  stu 
dent  and  teacher,  having  fitted  for  college  at  the  acade 
mies  at  Francestown  and  Hancock,  and  during  the 
winter  taught  school.  He  had  passed  his  examination 
for  entrance  to  Harvard  college  when,  on  April  19,  1861, 
his  plans  were  interrupted  by  the  call  of  duty,  and  he 
enlisted  as  private  in  Company  I,  Second  New  Hamp- 


752  NINTH  NE  W  HAMPSHIRE. 

shire  infantry,  commanded  by  Capt.  Edward  L.  Bailey 
of  Manchester.  With  this  regiment  he  went  to  the  front, 
participating  in  the  First  Battle  of  Bull  Run  and  in  the 
movement  to  the  Peninsula,  where  at  the  Battle  of 
Williainsburg  he  was  seriously  wounded  by  a  musket 
ball,  which  struck  him  at  the  bottom  of  the  right  ear  and 
passing  round  lodged  in  the  back  of  the  neck.  He  was 
sent  with  other  wounded  to  New  Hampshire,  and  when 
the  Ninth  regiment  was  raised,  on  the  recommenda 
tion  of  General  Hooker,  Colonel  Marston,  and  Lieuten 
ant-Colonel  Titus,  was  assigned  to  the  captaincy  of  Com 
pany  G  in  that  regiment.  He  assumed  command  of  his 
company  while  still  suffering  from  the  wound  in  his 
head,  and  at  the  Battle  of  Antietam  he  was  again  badly 
wounded  in  the  right  foot  and  leg,  while  leading  the 
skirmish  line  which  was  sent  out  to  develop  the  position 
of  the  enemy  after  Burnside  had  carried  the  bridge  on 
the  left  and  gained  the  heights  beyond.  He  rejoined 
his  regiment  upon  partial  recovery  from  this  wound,  and 
went  with  them  to  Kentucky. 

When  the  advance  to  Knoxville  was  made  Captain 
Whitfield  was  detailed  as  adjutant-general  on  the  staff  of 
Gen.  Alfred  S.  Frye,  but  was  subsequently  relieved  by 
General  Boyle  and  placed  in  command  of  the  distribu 
tion  camp  at  Camp  Nelson,  then  containing  about  2,400 
men  collected  from  different  regiments  and  awaiting 
transportation  to  the  front.  He  remained  in  command  of 
the  camp  until  the  regiment  moved  to  Mississippi,  when, 
owing  to  severe  illness  superinduced  by  impure  vaccine 
matter,  he  was  left  in  the  hospital  at  Cincinnati.  On  his 
recovery  he  was  induced  by  Adjutant-General  Thomas 
to  take  an  examination  for  promotion  to  the  One  Hundred 
and  Twenty-third  United  States  Colored  infantry,  then 


CAPT.  SMITH  A.  WHITFIELD    Co.  G. 


BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCHES.  753 

being  raised  in  Kentucky.  He  appeared  before  the  regu 
lar  army  board  at  Lexington,  and  passed  with  such 
credit  that  he  was  at  once  commissioned  as  lieutenant- 
colonel  of  that  regiment.  He  was  subsequently  made 
the  superintendent  of  organization  of  colored  troops  for 
the  state  of  Kentucky,  and  assisted  in  organizing,  arm 
ing,  and  equipping  a  number  of  regiments  afterwards 
distinguished  in  the  field. 

During  the  last  few  months  of  the  war  he  was  detailed 
as  member  of  a  general  court-martial  organized  to  try  the 
notorious  guerrillas  who  infested  Kentucky  at  that 
period.  He  was  honorably  mustered  out  in  October, 
1865,  at  Louisville,  Ky.,  having  served  a  little  over  four 
years  and  six  months.  Upon  being  mustered  out  he 
went  to  Cincinnati,  Ohio,  where,  after  a  year  spent  in  the 
great  distilling  house  of  S.  N.  Pike  &  Co.,  he  entered 
the  United  States  Internal  Revenue  service.  His  pro 
motion  here  was  steady  and  rapid,  and,  having  served 
through  all  the  grades,  he  was  in  1877  made  a  revenue 
agent  and  assigned  to  duty  at  Chicago  and  Milwaukee. 
He  was  subsequently  placed  in  charge  of  the  district  of 
Kentucky,  where  he  remained  for  nearly  three  years. 
His  service  there  was  varied  by  occasional  details  far 
ther  south,  and  much  of  this  time  was  spent  in  the  hazard 
ous  and  exciting  duty  of  hunting  down  and  driving  out 
the  "  moonshiners,"  who  infested  that  great  region 
embraced  in  the  general  terms  the  "  mountain  country  " 
of  the  South. 

At  a  later  period  he  was  assigned  to  the  district 
embracing  New  York  city  and  Brooklyn,  where  from 
his  long  experience  and  thorough  knowledge  he  was 
employed  in  examining  the  officers  of  the  revenue  ser 
vice,  deputy  collectors,  gangers,  storekeepers,  etc.  He 


XLVIII 


754  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE. 

was  again  assigned  to  duty  in  the  South,  and  was  in 
Kentucky  when  he  was  offered  and  accepted  the  position 
of  assistant  postmaster  at  Cincinnati,  Ohio.  This  posi 
tion  he  held  for  about  one  year,  when,  on  the  accession 
of  President  Arthur,  he  was  appointed  postmaster  of  that 
city.  This  office  he  held  during  the  Republican  adminis 
tration,  and  was  continued  by  President  Cleveland  for  a 
period  of  nearly  eighteen  months  after  his  inauguration. 
A  short  time  after  this  he  was  appointed  by  the  governor 
of  Ohio  one  of  a  board  of  five  charged  with  the  adminis 
tration  of  public  affairs  in  Cincinnati.  He  remained  a 
member  of  the  board  for  about  two  years,  when,  immedi 
ately  after  the  inauguration  of  President  Harrison,  he 
resigned  to  accept  the  office  of  second  assistant  postmas 
ter-general  of  the  United  States.  This  office  he  held  till 
the  retirement  of  First  Assistant  Postmaster-General 
Clarkson,  when  he  was  at  once  appointed  to  succeed 
him,  retaining  this  position  until  a  few  months  prior  to 
the  close  of  President  Harrison's  administration,  when  he 
resigned  to  engage  in  business  in  Chicago.  Unfortu 
nately  his  health,  which  had  become  seriously  impaired 
by  long  and  arduous  public  service,  broke  down,  and  he 
was  compelled  to  give  up  all  business  for  a  time,  and 
retired  to  his  summer  home  in  northern  Michigan,  where 
he  has  lived  most  of  the  time  during  the  last  two  years. 
His  health  has  greatly  improved  by  recreation  and  entire 
rest  from  care  and  responsibility,  and  it  now  seems  that 
he  has  still  many  years  of  useful  activity  before  him. 

Colonel  Whitfield  has  been  almost  from  the  time  of  his 
leaving  the  service  an  active  and  zealous  politician  of  the 
best  type,  believing  that  in  this  country  of  popular  gov 
ernment  no  good  citizen  can  afford  to  stand  aloof  from 
participation  in  public  affairs.  He  has  devoted  a  great 


BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCHES.  755 

deal  of  time  to  platform  work,  and  is  well  known  through 
out  Ohio  and  other  states  as  an  eloquent  and  forcible 
speaker.  As  a  speaker  in  Grand  Army  circles  and  on 
Memorial  days  his  services  have  been  in  great  demand 
throughout  the  West  and  North-west,  where  he  is  well 
and  most  favorably  known. 

He  was  married  in  1882  to  Miss  Florence  P.  Morri 
son,  a  most  charming  and  brilliant  young  lady  of  Cin 
cinnati,  Ohio.  His  family  consists  of  his  wife  and  two 
little  girls  of  nine  and  five  years,  and  it  is  in  the  home 
circle  that  the  colonel  finds  his  truest  happiness  in  the 
quiet  and  peaceful  enjoyment  of  the  rest  he  has  earned 
by  years  of  responsible,  arduous,  and  long  continued 
public  life.  His  record  is  a  remarkable  one  in  every 
way,  and  a  friend,  speaking  of  him  recently,  said  admir 
ingly, — "  Colonel  Whitfield  has  been  thirty  years  in  the 
military  and  civil  service,  and  in  all  those  years  has 
never  been  called  upon  to  refute  a  single  charge  nor 
meet  one  single  complaint/'  This  of  itself  would  consti 
tute  a  fitting  and  memorable  epitaph,  when,  in  the  fulness 
of  time,  one  shall  be  placed  over  the  comrade's  grave.1 


CHARLES    W.  WILCOX. 

Charles  W.  Wilcox  was  born  in  Brookfield,  Orange 
county,  Vt.,  June  26,  1836,  the  son  of  Erastus  and 
Electa  (Brown)  Wilcox,  both  natives  of  the  good  old 
college  town  of  Hanover,  N.  H.  His  paternal  grand 
father  (Elon  Wilcox)  was  a  native  of  Wethersfield, 

1  As  these  sheets  were  being  prepared  for  the  press,  the  news  came 
of  Colonel  WhitfielcTs  sudden  death,  at  Chicago,  111.,  December  2, 
1895. — Editor. 


756  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE. 

Conn.  His  maternal  grandfather  (Alba  Brown)  was  a 
native  of  Hanover,  N.  H.,  and  his  maternal  great-grand 
father  (Dr.  Joel  Brown),  a  noted  physician  of  Hanover, 
was  a  direct  descendant  of  one  of  the  early  promoters  of 
the  Massachusetts  colony.  Mr.  Wilcox  obtained  his 
early  education  in  the  common  schools,  and  attended 
one  year  at  the  Newbury  (Vt.)  academy.  In  1857  he 
left  the  home  farm  to  learn  the  jewelry  business  with 
Harvey  Holton,  in  Wells  River,  Vt.  Serving  there  two 
years,  he  then  was  employed  by  the  old  firm  of  Gray  & 
Libby,  in  Boston,  until  the  autumn  of  1860,  when  he 
went  to  Keene,  entering  the  employ  of  F.  W.  Cobb  & 
Co.  In  the  spring  of  1861  Mr.  Cobb  enlisted  under 
Capt.  Tile  A.  Barker  of  Company  A,  Second  regiment, 
New  Hampshire  volunteers,  leaving  Mr.  Wilcox  in 
charge  of  the  business. 

In  the  fall  of  1861  the  Sixth  regiment,  N.  H.  V.,  ren 
dezvoused  in  Keene,  preparatory  to  leaving  for  the  front, 
and  only  the  obligations  which  he  felt  himself  to  be 
under  to  his  employer  prevented  Mr.  Wilcox  from  enter 
ing  the  United  States  service  in  that  regiment.  When, 
however,  at  the  open-air  war  meetings  in  the  early  sum 
mer  of  1862,  he  listened  to  the  eloquent  speeches  of  that 
veteran  statesman,  Gen.  James  Wilson,  of  Lieut.  H.  B. 
Titus  (afterward  major,  lieutenant-colonel,  and  colonel 
of  the  Ninth  regiment),  and  others  who  were  home  on 
leave,  Mr.  Wilcox's  patriotic  blood  could  no  longer  with 
stand  the  pressure.  Meeting,  on  the  morning  of  August 
5,  near  where  the  Keene  soldiers' monument  now  stands, 
his  most  intimate  friend,  S.  Henry  Sprague,  then  book 
keeper  for  C.  C.  Bridgman,  after  a  few  minutes'  con 
versation  they  went  at  once  to  Capt.  J.  W.  Babbitt's 
recruiting  office  and  enrolled  themselves  in  the  service  of 


BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCHES.  757 

their  country  ;  and  many  an  old  comrade  can  realize  the 
relief  they  experienced  when  the  deed  was  finally  done. 
They  went,  too,  and  tented  together  in  Concord,  until 
the  fortunes  of  the  service  separated  them.  Mr.  Sprague 
was  promoted  to  be  second  lieutenant  and  commissary  of 
the  regiment,  and  afterwards  to  be  first  lieutenant  and 
acting  assistant  commissary  on  General  Burnside's  staff; 
while  Mr.  Wilcox,  too,  won  deserved  promotion,  and 
closely  followed  the  fortunes  of  the  regiment  until  his 
capture  at  Spottsylvania,  in  May,  1864.  It  was  Lieuten 
ant  Wilcox's  sad  privilege  to  be  with  Lieutenant  Sprague 
in  Cincinnati,  O.,  on  his  return  from  Vicksburg,  Miss.,  in 
the  summer  of  1863,  and  to  care  for  him  during  his 
short  and  fatal  illness  with  malarial  fever.  Granted 
leave  of  absence  by  General  Burnside,  Lieutenant  Wil 
cox  accompanied  the  remains  of  his  friend  home  to 
Keene,  and  then  to  Winchester,  where  the  body  of  the 
brave,  true-hearted  young  lieutenant,  deeply  mourned  by 
his  friends  and  all  who  knew  him,  was  laid  to  rest  with 
Masonic  honors. 

Mr.  Wilcox  had  enlisted  as  private  in  Company  I,  of 
the  Ninth  New  Hampshire,  but  was  soon  promoted  to  be 
first  sergeant,  and  shared  the  fortunes  of  the  regiment 
through  the  battles  of  South  Mountain,  Antietam,  and 
Fredericksburg.  During  the  winter  of  1862-3,  while 
the  regiment  was  in  camp  at  Falmouth,  Va.,  Sergeant 
Wilcox  came  near  losing  his  life  from  black  measles. 
In  February,  1863,  he  was  sent  to  Columbia  College 
hospital,  in  Washington,  D.  C.,  then  in  charge  of  Dr. 
Crosby,  of  Hanover,  N.  H.,  rejoining  his  regiment  at 
Cincinnati,  O.,  March  29,  1863,  when  the  Ninth  was 
on  its  way  from  Newport  News  to  Kentucky.  May  i, 
1863,  Sergeant  Wilcox  was  promoted  to  be  second  lieu- 


758  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE. 

tenant  of  Company  F,  but  owing  to  a  severe  attack  of 
pneumonia  was  unable  to  go  with  the  regiment  on  the 
Mississippi  campaign,  doing  duty,  however,  at  the  con 
valescent  camp  at  Hickman's  Bridge,  Ky.,  and  at  Cin 
cinnati,  O.,  as  soon  as  he  was  sufficiently  recovered  from 
his  own  illness.  Rejoining  his  regiment  on  its  return 
from  Vicksburg,  Lieutenant  Wilcox  was  assigned  to  the 
command  of  his  company,  and  was  stationed  at  Kim- 
brough's  Bridge,  Cynthiana,  Ky.,  until  September  22, 
when  he  was  detailed  to  command  Companies  H  and  K, 
at  Keller's  Bridge,  remaining  there  until  December  4, 
when  he  was  relieved,  and  returned  to  the  command  of 
his  own  company. 

Lieutenant  Wilcox  retained  this  position  while  the  reg 
iment  was  stationed  at  Point  Burnside,  Ky.,  also  on  its 
memorable  march  from  there,  via  Cumberland  Gap,  to 
Knoxville,  Tenn.,  and  the  return  march  to  Kentucky, 
until  April,  1864,  when  the  regiment  and  corps  rejoined 
the  Army  of  the  Potomac,  when  Captain  Stone  and 
Lieutenant  Babb,  who  had  been  on  detailed  service  else 
where,  returned  to  the  company.  In  the  bloody  battles 
of  the  Wilderness  on  May  5,  and  of  Spottsylvania  Court 
house,  May  12,  Lieutenant  Wilcox  was  always  at  the 
front,  seeming  to  fear  no  danger  incurred  in  the  per 
formance  of  the  duties  assigned  him,  and  was  taken 
prisoner  during  the  last-named  battle.  An  interesting 
account  of  his  capture  and  the  sad  scenes  connected 
with  his  ten  months  life  in  southern  prison-pens,  will  be 
found  elsewhere  in  this  volume. 

Lieutenant  Wilcox  was  unable  to  rejoin  his  regiment 
after  his  return  from  rebel  prisons,  in  March,  1865,  on 
account  of  General  Orders  issued  from  the  war  depart 
ment,  and  he  was  honorably  discharged  from  the  United 


BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCHES.  759 

States  service,  May  15,  1865.  Soon  after  his  discharge 
Mr.  Wilcox  was  given  a  responsible  position  in  the 
E.  Howard  &  Co.  watch  factory,  at  Roxbury,  Mass., 
remaining  with  them  until  taking  up  the  watch  and 
jewelry  business  on  his  own  account,  purchasing  the 
business  of  Marshall  Bros.,  in  Milford,  Mass.,  October, 
1866.  Here  he  has  since  resided,  and  has  built  up  a 
substantial  business  for  himself,  besides  being  promi 
nently  identified  with  several  other  local  financial  enter 
prises.  Always  a  staunch  Republican  in  politics,  and 
an  active  worker  in  his  party's  interest,  although  refus 
ing  rather  than  seeking  public  office,  Mr.  Wilcox  was  for 
several  years  a  trustee  of  the  town  library,  and  for  the 
past  fifteen  years  has  served  as  one  of  the  park  commis 
sioners.  He  also  represented  the  Second  Worcester 
county  representatives'  district  in  the  Massachusetts 
legislature  of  1881. 

Comrade  Wilcox  is  a  charter  member  of  Post  22, 
Department  of  Massachusetts,  G.  A.  R.,  and  as  one  of 
its  first  officials  served  as  chief  mustering  officer  and 
member  of  council  of  administration  of  the  department. 
He  is  also  a  member  of  the  board  of  trustees  of  the  Sold 
iers'  Home,  Chelsea,  Mass.,  and  was  one  of  the  original 
incorporators  of  the  board.  As  chairman  of  the  building 
committee  to  raise  the  necessary  funds  for  the  present 
beautiful  and  commodious  Regimental  head-quarters  at 
The  Weirs,  Comrade  Wilcox  did  yeoman  service,  and 
was  president  of  the  Regimental  association  in  1888,  when 
the  head-quarters  building  was  dedicated.  He  married, 
September  25,  1867,  Miss  Ann  M.,  daughter  of  Urial 
A.  Clark,  of  Brookfield,  Vt.  One  child  has  been  born  to 
them,  a  son,  Clark  H. 


760  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE. 

ALVIN  A.    YOUNG. 

Alvin  A.  Young,  of  Company  K,  who  was  born  in 
Newport,  August  31,  1846,  was  twenty-seven  days 
under  sixteen  years  of  age  at  the  time  of  his  enlistment. 
He  was  in  the  battles  of  South  Mountain,  Antietam, 
Fredericksburg,  Vicksburg,  Jackson,  the  Wilderness, 
and  Spottsylvania.  On  March  i,  1864,  he  was  ap 
pointed  corporal.  At  Spottsylvania,  just  as  the  regiment 
was  forced  to  fall  back,  Corporal  Young  stopped  to  fire 
at  the  Confederate  colors,  but  a  southern  officer,  seeing 
the  act,  sprang  at  him  with  a  sabre,  and  he  turned  to 
follow  his  company ;  but  a  Confederate  who  was  in 
advance  turned  and  thrust  a  bayonet  through  the  corpo 
ral's  side.  As  he  fell  to  the  ground  the  southerners 
passed  over  him.  After  lying  quiet  for  some  time  he 
was  taken  back  through  the  woods  to  a  large  clearing, 
where  there  were  quite  a  number  of  the  Ninth  Regiment 
boys  who  had  been  captured,  among  them  Alvah  R. 
Davis  and  Perley  A.  Smith,  of  Company  K.  They 
were  soon  separated,  as  all  that  were  not  wounded  were 
marched  off,  while  the  disabled  ones  were  carried  back 
still  farther.  After  nightfall  an  ambulance  drove  near, 
and  another  soldier  was  1-eft,  whose  groans  attracted 
Corporal  Young's  attention.  Crawling  to  the  place 
where  the  soldier  lay,  the  comrade  found  to  his  surprise 
and  great  sorrow  Sergt.  Randolph  Hall  of  Company 
K,  wounded  through  the  right  lung.  He  laid  down 
beside  his  comrade,  spreading  his  own  blanket  over 
both,  for  it  was  raining  hard.  After  about  ten  days  of 
suffering  from  wounds,  hunger,  and  lack  of  shelter,  the 
two  were  placed  in  an  army  wagon  and  taken  to  a  rail 
road  station,  then  to  Richmond,  where  they  were  placed 


BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCHES.  761 

in  an  old  tobacco  factory,  called  No.  21.  The  hard 
journey,  added  to  the  exposure,  proved  too  much  for  Ser 
geant  Hall,  who  died  soon  after  reaching  the  prison. 
After  four  months  of  prison  life  Corporal  Young  was 
paroled  and  sent  to  Annapolis,  Md.,  and  there  was 
given  a  furlough  of  thirty  days.  He  was  then  ex 
changed,  and  joined  the  regiment  about  the  i5th  of 
November  at  Petersburg,  remaining  with  it  until  mus 
tered  out  June  10,  1865. 


XLIX 


ERRATA. 


Pages  146-161.  Read  October,  1862,  in  running  headlines, 
in  place  of  "  September,  1862." 

Pages  345-346.  It  will  be  noticed  that  the  anecdote  relating 
to  the  presence  of  Captain  Alexander  at  an  auction  sale  of 
slaves,  pertains  to  the  first  sojourn  of  the  regiment  in  Kentucky, 
before  the  Mississippi  campaign. 

Page  504.  In  headline  near  foot  of  page,  read  Private 
Barnes  of  Company  F,  in  place  of  "  Private  Barnes  of  Com 
pany  B." 

Page  531.  A  blank  line  ought  not  to  separate  the  closing 
paragraph  of  Sergeant  Burnham's  letter,  but  should  appear  after 
the  quotation. 

Page  622.     In  line  7  read  cook-house,  not  "work-house." 

Page  623.     In  line  18  read  Six,  not  "One." 


APPENDIX 


ABBREVIATIONS   USED    IN    ROSTER. 


A.  A.  G.  Assistant  Adjutant  General. 
A.  C.  .         .  Army  Corps. 

Adjt Adjutant. 

A.  G.  O.      Adjutant  General's  Office. 

App Appointed. 

Appreh.  .         .         Apprehended. 

A.  Q.  M.       Assistant  Quartermaster. 
Art.         ....         Artillery. 

Asst Assistant. 

B(b.) Born. 

Batt'l Battalion. 

B.  H.  .         .      Boston  Harbor. 
Brig.        .         .         Brigade,  Brigadier. 

Bvt Brevet. 

Capt Captain. 

Captd Captured. 

Cav Cavalry. 

Co.          ....       Company. 

Col Colonel. 

Com.       .    Commissary,  Commission. 
Com'd.    .         .         .       Commissioned. 

Corp Corporal. 

Cred Credited. 

C.  S.         Commissary  of  Subsistence. 

Dept Department. 

Des Deserted. 

Disab Disabled. 

Disch Discharged. 

Dishon.           .         .         Dishonorably. 
Div.         ....         Division. 
Enl.          ....         Enlisted. 
Exch Exchanged. 

F.  and  S.         .         .     Field  and  Staff. 

G.  C.  M.  General  Court  Martial. 
Gd.  from  mis.     Gained  from  missing. 

Gen General. 

G.  O.  .         .     General  Orders. 

H Heavy. 

Hosp Hospital. 

I.  C.     Invalid  Corps ;  name  changed 

to  Veteran  Reserve  Corps,  March 
1 8,  1864. 
Inf.          .         .         .         .         Infantry. 


L.    . 
Lt. 
Maj. 
Mis. 

Miscel.    . 
M.  o.  roll 
Muse. 
Must. 


.     Light. 

.     Lieutenant. 

.    Major. 

Missing. 

Miscellaneous. 

Muster  out  roll. 

Musician. 

Muster,  mustered. 


N.  f.  r.  A.  G.  O.  No  further  record 
Adjutant  General's  Office,  Wash 
ington,  D.  C. 

N.  Y.  H.         .        New  York  Harbor. 

Non-Com.       .        Non-commissioned. 

Ord.  Seaman  .  Ordinary  seaman. 

Par Paroled. 

P.  O.  ad.  Post-office  address,  last 
known. 

Prin.        ....        Principal. 

Priv Private. 

Prom Promoted. 

Q.  M.  .         .       Quartermaster. 

Re-enl Re-enlisted. 

Regt Regiment. 

Res Residence. 

Sergt Sergeant. 

Sev Severely. 

S.  O.  .         .       Special  Orders. 

Surg Surgeon. 

Tm.  ex.  .         .        .        Term  expired. 

Tr.  ....  Transferred. 

U.  S.  A.          .     United  States  Army. 

U.  S.  S.  .         .       United  States  Ship. 

Unas'd    . '       .         .         .   Unassigned. 

U.  S.  C.  T.  United  States  Colored 
Troops. 

U.  S.  Sig.  Corps  United  States  Sig 
nal  Corps. 

U.  S.  S.  S.  United  States  Sharp 

shooters. 

V Volunteers. 

V.  R.  C.          Veteran  Reserve  Corps. 

Wd Wounded. 

Wds.  Wounds. 


NOTE. — When  men  served  in  two  or  more  organizations,  and  the  birthplace  or  age 
does  not  correspond,  quotation  marks  are  used. 


COMPLETE   ROSTER 


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SERVICE  OF   MEMBERS 

OF   THE 

NINTH     REQIMENT 


OTHER  ORGANIZATIONS. 


FIRST    REGIMENT,    N.  H.  V. 

Bailey,  Sewell  B.  Co.  I;  b.  Salem;  age  35;  res.  Chichester;  enl. 
Apr.  27,  '61;  must,  in  May  4,  '61,  as  Priv. ;  must,  out  Aug.  9,  '61. 

Bennett,  Alden  B.  Co.  E;  b.  Dunstable,  Mass.;  age  42;  res.  Mil- 
ford;  enl.  Apr.  19,  '61;  must,  in  May  2,  '61,  as  Muse.;  must,  out 
Aug.  9,  '61.  See  State  Service  and  Miscell.  Organizations. 

Colburn,  Eleazer.  Co.  G;  b.  Dorchester;  age  21;  res.  Keene;  enl. 
Apr.  21,  '61;  must,  in  May  2,  '61,  as  Priv.;  must,  out  Aug.  9,  '61. 
P.  O.  ad.,  Meredith. 

Cooper,  John  B.  Co.  D;  b.  Walpole;  age  22;  res.  Newport;  enl. 
Apr.  22,  '61;  must,  in  May  2,  '61,  as  Corp.;  must,  out  Aug.  9,  '61. 
P.  O.  ad.,  Newport. 

Dean,  Joseph  E.  Co.  D;  b.  Wrentham,  Mass.;  age  21;  res.  New 
port;  enl.  Apr.  20,  '61;  must,  in  May  2,  '61,  as  Priv.;  must,  out 
Aug.  9,  '61. 

Densmore,  Edgar  A.  Co.  E;  b.  Sharon,  Vt. ;  age  19;  res.  Nashua; 
enl.  Apr.  19,  '61;  must,  in  May  2,  '61,  as  Priv.;  must,  out  Aug.  9, 
'61. 

Edgerly,  Augustus  S.  Co.  F;  b.  Sanbornton ;  age  31;  res.  Nashua; 
app.  Capt.  Apr.  30,  '61;  must,  in  May  3,  '61;  must,  out  Aug.  9,  '61. 

Emery,  George  W.  Co.  B;  b.  Somersworth ;  age  18;  res.  Dover; 
enl.  Apr.  18,  '61;  must,  in  May  2,  '61,  as  Priv.;  must,  out  Aug.  9, 
'61. 

Fellows,  Enoch  Q.  Co.  K;  b.  Sandwich;  age  35;  res.  Sandwich; 
app.  1  Lt.  Apr.  30,  '61;  must,  in  May  2,  '61,  as  Regtl.  Adjt.;  must, 
out  Aug.  9,  '61.  P.  O.  ad.,  Centre  Sandwich.  See  3  N.  H.  V. 


n8  SERVICE  OF  MEMBERS  IN 

Ford,  Henry.  Co.  K;  b.  Orange;  age  22;  res.  Graf  ton;  enl.  May  2, 
'61;  must,  in  May  7,  '61,  as  Priv.  Disch.  Aug.  9,  '61,  tm.  ex.  P. 
O.  ad.,  Graf  ton. 

Gray,  Benjamin.  Co.  I;  b.  Sheffield,  Vt. ;  age  22;  res.  Holderness; 
enl.  Apr.  19,  '61;  must,  in  May  4,  '61,  as  Priv.;  must,  out  Aug.  9, 
'61.  P.  O.  ad.,  Bristol.  See  Unattached  Co.,  N.  H.  V. 

Hackett,  Frank  B.  Co.  C;  b.  St.  Albans,  Me.;  age  18;  res.  Man 
chester;  enl.  April  18,  '61;  must,  in  May  2,  '61,  as  Priv. ;  must,  out 
Aug.  9,  '61.  See  Unattached  Co.,  N.  H.  V. 

Heath,  Webster.  Co.  I;  b.  Bristol;  age  26;  res.  Bristol;  enl.  Apr. 
23,  '61;  must,  in  May  4,  '61,  as  Priv.;  must,  out  Aug.  9,  '61.  P.  O. 
ad.,  Wakefield,  Mass. 

Hutchinson,  Elijah.  Co.  D;  b.  Newport;  age  20;  res.  Newport; 
enl.  Apr.  20,  '61;  must,  in  May  2,  '61,  as  Priv.;  must,  out  Aug.  9, 
'61. 

Hutchinson,  Jacob  R.  Co.  D;  b.  Sunapee;  age  25;  res.  Newport; 
enl.  Apr.  22,  '61 ;  must,  in  May  2,  '61,  as  Priv. ;  must,  out  Aug.  9, 
'61.  P.  O.  ad..  Newport. 

Hutchinson,  Prentiss  C.  Co.  D;  b.  Newport;  age  23;  res.  New 
port;  enl.  Apr.  20,  '61;  must,  in  May  2,  '61,  as  Priv.;  must,  out 
Aug.  9,  '61.  P.  O.  ad.,  Newport. 

Kelsey,  Boswell  J.  Co.  D;  b.  Newport;  age  21;  res.  Newport; 
enl.  Apr.  20,  '61 ;  must,  in  May  2,  '61,  as  Priv.;  must,  out  Aug.  9, 
'61.  P.  O.  ad.,  Newport. 

Morse,  Francis.  Co.  F;  b.  Danville,  Vt. ;  age 34;  res.  Nashua;  enl. 
Apr.  30,  '61;  must,  in  May  3,  '61,  as  Corp.;  must,  out  Aug.  9,  '61. 

Mudgett,  John  F.  Co.  H;  b.  Epping;  age  21;  res.  Epping;  enl. 
Apr.  22,  '61;  must,  in  May  4,  '61,  to  Apr.  26,  '61,  as  Priv.;  must, 
out  Aug.  9,  '61. 

Phelps,  Peter  F.  Co.  K;  b.  Wilmot;  age  24;  res.  Andover;  enl. 
May  1,  '61;  must,  in  May  7,  '61,  as  Priv.;  must,  out  Aug.  9,  '61. 

Raymond,  Hercules  W.  Co.  G;  b.  Georgia,  Vt.;  age  21;  res. 
Rindge;  enl.  Apr.  20,  '61;  must,  in  May  2,  '61,  as  Priv.;  must,  out 
Aug.  9,  '61.  P.  O.  ad.,  E.  Alstead.  See  18  N.  H.  V. 

Shea,  Jeremiah.  Co.  D;  b.  Kerry  Co.,  Ir. ;  age  21;  res.  Nashua; 
enl.  Apr.  19,  '61;  must,  in  May  2,  '61,  as  Priv.;  must,  out  Aug.  9, 
'61.  P.  O.  ad.,  Nashua. 

Towns,  Charles  E.  Co.  G;  b.  Keene;  age  22;  res.  Keene;  enl.  Apr. 
22,  '61;  must,  in  May  2,  '61,  as  Corp.;  must,  out  Aug.  9,  '61. 

Weir,  William  W.  Co.  E;  b.  Canada;  age 36;  res.  Nashua;  enl. 
Apr.  20,  '61;  must,  in  May  2,  '61,  as  Priv.;  must,  out  Aug.  9,  '61. 


OTHER  ORGANIZATIONS.  119 

Whipple,  John  P.  Co.  F;  b.  Andover;  age  28;  res.  Nashua;  enl. 
Apr.  30,  '61;  must,  in  May  3,  '61,  as  Priv.;  must,  out  Aug.  9,  '61. 
P.  O.  ad.,  Biddeford,  Me. 

SECOND  REGIMENT,  N.  H.  V. 

Boyden,  George  W.  Co.  B;  b.  Industry,  Me.;  age  28;  res.  Con 
cord;  enl.  May  11,  '61;  must,  in  June  1,  '61,  as  Sergt.;  app.  1  Lt. 
Nov.  8,  '61;  resigned  May  20,  '62. 

Emerson,  John  A.  Co.  K;  b.  Deerfield;  age  21;  res.  Deerfield; 
enl.  Sept.  2,  '61;  must,  in  Sept.  9,  '61,  as  Priv.;  captd.  May  5,  '62, 
Williamsburg,  Va. ;  released;  disch.  May  22,  '62,  Washington, 
D.  C.  P.  O.  ad.,  Deerfield. 

Meserve,  Joseph  C.  Co.  E;  b.  Barnstead;  age  18;  res.  Northwood; 
enl.  Apr.  26,  '61,  for  3  mos. ;  not  must,  in;  paid  by  State;  re-enl. 
May  21,  '61,  for  3  yrs.;  must,  in  June  3,  '61,  as  Priv.;  wd.  July  21, 
'61,  Bull  Run,  Va.;  disch.  wds.  Aug.  1,  '61,  Washington,  D.  C. 
P.  O.  ad.,  South  Barnstead. 

Page,  Horace.  Co.  H;  b.  Henniker;  age  21;  res.  Henniker;  enl. 
Apr.  29, '61,  for  3  mos. ;  not  must,  in;  re-enl.  May  20,  '61,  for  3 
yrs.;  must,  in  June  5,  '61,  as  Priv.;  disch.  disab.  Oct.  22,  '61,  Bla- 
densburg,  Md.  P.  O.  ad.,  Deering. 

Randall,  George  W.  Co.  C;  b.  Providence,  R.  I.;  age  21;  res. 
Salem;  enl.  May  13, '61;  must,  in  June  1,  '61,  as  Priv.;  disch. 
disab.  Aug.  28,  '61,  Washington,  D.  C. 

Randall,  Horace.  Co.  D;  b.  Rochester;  age  22;  res.  Rochester; 
enl.  May  22,  '61;  must,  in  June  1,  '61,  as  Priv.;  disch.  disab.  Aug. 
21,  '61.  P.  O.  ad.,  Haverhill,  Mass.  See  4  N.  H.  V. 

Seaver,  Thomas  B.  Co.  K;  b.  Scarborough,  Me.;  age  41;  res. 
Portsmouth;  enl.  May  22,  '61;  must,  in  June  8,  '61,  as  Priv.; 
disch.  disab.  Mar.  15,  '62,  Washington,  D.  C.  See  Unattached  Co., 
N.  H.  V.,  and  V.  R.  C. 

Stevens,  Josiah,  Jr.  F.  and  S.;  b.  Newport;  age  35;  res.  Concord; 
app.  Maj.  May  3,  '61;  must,  in  June  10,  '61;  resigned  July  25,  '62. 

Titus,  Herbert  B.  Co.  A;  b.  Chesterfield;  age  27;  res.  Chester 
field;  enl.  Apr.  25,  '61,  for  3  mos.,  as  Priv.;  not  must,  in;  paid  by 
State;  re-enl.  May  22,  '61,  for  3  yrs.;  app.  2  Lt.  June  4,  '61;  must, 
in  to  date  May  31,  '61,  as  2  Lt.;  app.  1  Lt.  to  date  Sept.  17,  '61;  tr. 
to  Co.  F,  Sept.  17,  '61;  to  Co.  A,  Nov.  1,  '61;  disch.  July  1,  '62,  to 
accept  promotion.  P.  O.  ad.,  Nyack,  N.  Y. 

Whitfield,  Smith  A.  Co.  I;  b.  Francestown;  age  20;  res.  Frances- 
town;  enl.  Apr.  25,  '61,  for  3  mos.;  not  must,  in;  paid  by  State; 
re-enl.  May  23,  '61,  for  3  yrs.;  must,  in  June  7,  '61,  as  Priv.;  wd. 
May  5,  '62,  Williamsburg,  Va.;  disch.  Sept.  12,  '62,  to  accept  pro 
motion.  Died  Dec.  2,  '95,  Chicago,  111.  See  U.  S.  C.  T. 


I2O  SERVICE  OF  MEMBERS  IN  • 

THIRD    REGIMENT,  N.  H.  V. 

Currier,  Julius  C.  Co.  D;  b.  Newton;  age 23;  res.  Seabrook;  enl. 
Aug.  19,  '61;  must,  in  Aug.  23,  '61,  as  Priv. ;  disch.  disab.  Oct.  17, 
'61,  Annapolis,  Md.  See  Miscell.  Organizations. 

Davis,  Henry.  Co.  B;  b.  Kingston;  age  27;  res.  Kingston;  enl. 
July  26,  '61;  must,  in  Aug.  22,  '61,  as  Priv.;  disch.  disab.  Feb.  22, 
'62,  Washington,  D.  C.  P.  O.  ad.,  Kingston. 

Fellows,  Enoch  Q.  F.  and  S. ;  b.  Sandwich;  age  36;  res.  Sand 
wich;  app.  Col.  Aug.  10,  '61;  must,  in  Aug.  26,  '61;  disch.  June 
28,  '62.  P.  O.  ad.,  Centre  Sandwich.  See  1  N.  H.  Y. 

Sweet,  Gardiner.  Co.  B;  b.  Newport;  age  26;  res.  Newport;  enl. 
July  25,  '61;  must,  in  Aug.  22,  '61,  as  Priv.;  disch.  disab.  Dec.  7, 
'61,  Annapolis,  Md. 

"Wallace,  Joseph  H.  Co.  H;  b.  Manchester;  age  21;  res.  Manches 
ter;  enl.  Aug.  5,  '61;  must,  in  Aug.  23,  '61,  as  Priv.;  disch.  disab. 
Oct.  18,  '61,  Annapolis,  Md.  See  State  Service. 

FOURTH    REGIMENT,  N.  H.  V. 

Bronson,  Louis.  Co.  D;  b.  Canada;  age  21;  cred.  Concord;  enl. 
Aug.  5,  '64;  must,  in  Aug.  5,  '64,  as  Priv. ;  must,  out  Aug.  23,  '65; 
enl.  for  9  N.  H.  Y.,  but  failed  to  reach  that  regt.,  joining  instead 
the  4  N.  H.  Y.  Is  erroneously  reported  on  rolls  of  Co.  H,  9  N.  H. 
Y.,  as  having  des.  en  route  to  regt.,  Aug.,  '64. 

Flanders,  William  C.  Co.  E;  b.  Boston,  Mass.;  age  18;  res.  Dun- 
barton;  enl.  Aug.  21, '61;  must,  in  Sept.  18,  '61,  as  Priv.;  disch. 
disab.  Jan.  3,  '62,  Hilton  Head,  S.  C.  See  Unattached  Co.,  N.  H.  Y. 

Hale,  Thomas.  Co.  D;  b.  Newbury,  Mass.;  age  54;  res.  Laconia; 
enl.  July  25,  '61;  must,  in  Sept.  18,  '61,  as  Muse.;  disch.  disab. 
Jan.  12,  '62.  See  Unattached  Co.,  N.  H.  Y.,  Miscell.  Organiza 
tions,  and  State  Service. 

Jones,  Archible  R.  Co.  B;  b.  Jefferson,  Me.;  age  "43";  res. 
Nashua;  enl.  Aug.  30,  '61:  must,  in  Sept.  18,  '61,  as  Priv.;  disch. 
disab.  Feb.  11,  '62,  Hilton  Head,  S.  C. 

Marsh,  Edward  K.    Co.   D ;    b.    Calais,  Yt. ;  age   18  ;  res.  Lynde- 
borough;    enl.    Aug.    14,    '61;   must,    in    Sept.    18,    '61,    as  Priv.; 
.  disch.  disab.  Jan.  31,  '62. 

Pillsbury,  William  S.  Co.  I;  b.  Sutton;  age  28;  res.  London 
derry;  enl.  Sept.  14,  '61,  as  Priv.;  app.  1  Lt.  Sept.  20,  '61;  must, 
in  to  date  Sept.  18,  '61,  as  1  Lt.;  resigned  Oct.  20,  '61.  P.  O.  ad., 
Londonderry.  See  1  N.  H.  H.  Art. 

Randall,  Horace.  Co.  F;  b.  Rochester;  age  22;  res.  Rochester; 
enl.  Aug.  15,  '61;  must,  in  Sept.  18,  '61;  disch.  disab.  Jan.  9,  '62. 
P.  O.  ad.,  Haverhill,  Mass.  See  2  N.  H.  Y. 


OTHER  ORGANIZATIONS.  121 

Randall,  Daniel  C.  Co.  I;  b.  New  Brunswick;  age  "36";  res. 
Haverhill;  enl.  Sept.  2,  '61;  must,  in  Sept.  18,  '61,  asPriv.;  disch. 
disab.  Nov.  17,  '62,  Beaufort,  S.  C. 

Tilton,  Charles  W.  Co.  K;  b.  Northfield;  age  31;  res.  Sanbornton; 
enl.  July  22,  '61,  as  Priv.;  app.  2  Lt.  Sept.  20,  '61;  must,  in  to  date 
Sept.  18,  '61,  as  2  Lt. ;  resigned  Jan.  16,  '62.  P.  O.  ad.,  Tilton. 
See  State  Service. 

Wells,  Milo  E.  Co.  F;  b.  Littleton;  age  22;  res.  Littleton;  enl. 
Aug.  31,  '61;  must,  in  Sept.  18,  '61,  as  Priv.;  disch.  disab.  Jan.  19, 
'62.  P.  O.  ad.,  Monroe.  See  V.  R.  C. 

FIFTH  REGIMENT. 

Bresland,  Joseph.  Co.  G;  b.  Ireland;  age  23:  res.  Charlestown; 
enl.  Sept.  27,  '61;  must,  in  Oct.  12,  '61,  as  Priv.;  wd.  Dec.  13,  '62, 
Fredericksburg,  Ya. ;  disch.  disab.  April  2,  '63,  Alexandria,  Ya. 
P.  O.  ad.,  Nat.  Home,  Wis. 

Herr,  Michiel.  Co.  K;  b.  Switzerland;  age  36;  res.  Switzerland; 
enl.  Sept.  23,  '61;  must,  in  Oct.  12,  '61,  as  Priv.;  disch.  disab.  Feb. 

7, '62. 

SIXTH    REGIMENT. 

Cutler,  George  W.  Co.  G. ;  b.  Boston,  Mass. ;  age  22 ;  res.  Nashua ; 
enl.  Nov.  26,  '61 ;  must,  in  Dec.  6,  '61,  as  Priv. ;  disch.  disab.  Mar. 
4,  '62,  Roanoke  Isl.,  N.  C.  See  Y.  R.  C. 

Davis,  James  Leonard.  Co.  G;  b.  Gilsum;  age  27;  res.  Gilsum; 
enl.  Oct.  28,  '61;  must,  in  Dec.  7,  '61,  as  Priv.;  disch.  Sept.  10,  '62. 

Smith,  Jason.  Co.  B;  b.  Lyman;  age  32;  res.  Littleton;  enl.  Oct.  5, 
'61;  must,  in  Nov.  27,  '61,  as  Priv.;  disch.  disab.  Oct.  15, '62,  Alex 
andria,  Ya. 

EIGHTH    REGIMENT. 

Hamblett,  Judson  A.  Co.  A;  b.  Milford;  age  18;  res.  Nashua; 
enl.  Sept.  30,  '61;  must,  in  Oct.  25,  '61,  as  Muse.;  disch.  Oct.,  '61, 
on  writ  of  habeas  corpus.  P.  O.  ad.,  Nashua.  See  Lafayette 
Artillery. 

ELEVENTH  REGIMENT. 

Warner,  Robert.  Co.  K;  b.  Russia;  age  35;  cred.  Peterborough; 
enl.  Dec.  28,  '63;  must,  in  Dec.  28,  '63,  as  Priv.;  reported  on  m.  o. 
roll  as  tr.  to  6  N.  H.  Y.,  June  1,  '65,  with  remark  "absent  sick"; 
never  joined  6  N.  H.  Y.  N.  f.  r.  A.  G.  O.  Originally  assigned  to 
9  N.  H.  Y.,  but  failed  to  join  that  regt. 

FIFTEENTH    REGIMENT. 

Ford,  James  E.  Co.  F;  b.  Orange;  age  18;  res.  Danbury;  cred. 
Danbury;  enl.  Sept.  17,  '62;  must,  in  Oct.  15,  '62,  as  Corp.;  wd. 


122  SERVICE  OF  MEMBERS  IN 

May  27,  '63,  Port  Hudson,  La. ;  must,  out  Aug.  13,  '63.  Died  Apr. 
29,  '85.  Supposed  identical  with  James  E.  Ford,  Co.  L,  1  N.  H.  H. 
Art. 

SIXTEENTH  REGIMENT. 

Cram,  Albert.  Co.  I;  b.  Dublin;  age  26;  res.  Stoddard,  cred.  Stod- 
dard;  enl.  Sept.  1,  '62;  must,  in  Oct.  23,  '62,  as  Priv.;  must,  out 
Aug.  20,  '63.  P.  O.  ad.,  Antrim. 

Trench,  Stephen  S.  Co.  I;  b.  Winchester;  age  18;  res.  Keene, 
cred.  Walpole;  enl.  Nov.  13,  '62;  must,  in  Nov.  14,  '62,  as  Priv.; 
must,  out  Oct.  20,  '63.  P.  O.  ad.,  Dayton,  Ohio. 

Sargent,  Frank  B.  Co.  H;  b.  New  London;  age  18;  res.  New 
London,  cred.  Hillsborough;  enl.  Nov.  10,  '62;  must,  in  Nov.  10, 
'62,  as  Priv.;  app.  Corp.  June  19,  '63;  must,  out  Aug.  20,  '63.  P. 
O.  ad.,  Stoneham,  Mass. 

SEVENTEENTH    REGIMENT. 

Bedell,  Austin.  Co.  A;  b.  Jefferson;  age  18;  res.  Jefferson,  cred. 
Jefferson;  enl.  Sept.  20,  '62;  must,  in  Nov.  22,  '62,  as  Priv.;  tr.  to 
Co.  F,  2  N.  H.  V.,  Apr.  16,  '63;  must,  out  Oct.  9,  '63. 

Cummings,  George.  Co.  A;  b.  Leeds,  Can. ;  age  18;  cred.  Straff ord; 
enl.  Nov.  3,  '62;  must,  in  Nov.  22,  '62,  as  Priv.;  tr.  to  Co.  B,  2  N. 
H.  V.,  Apr.  16,  '63;  to  Co.  H,  May  31,  '63;  must,  out  Oct.  9,  '63. 
P.  O.  ad.,  Lancaster. 

Lucas,  Harvey  H.  Co.  A;  b.  Lancaster;  age  30;  res.  Lancaster, 
cred.  Lancaster;  enl.  Oct.  6,  '62;  must,  in  Nov.  22,  '62,  as  Wag 
oner;  tr.  to  Co.  F,  2  N.  H.  V.,  Apr.  16,  '63,  as  Priv. ;  mis.  July  2, 
'63,  Gettysburg,  Pa.;  gd.  from  mis.;  must,  out  Oct.  9,  '63.  P.  O. 
ad.,  Canaan,  Vt. 

Pratt,  Alfred  C.  Co.  A;  b.  Hebron,  Me.;  age  44;  res.  Jefferson, 
cred.  Jefferson;  enl.  Oct.  1,  '62;  must,  in  Nov.  22,  '62,  as  Priv. ;  tr. 
to  Co.  H,  2  N.  H.  V.,  Apr.  16,  '63;  disch.  disab.  June  9,  '63,  Con 
cord.  P.  O.  ad.,  Lancaster. 

EIGHTEENTH  REGIMENT. 

Brown,  William  I.  F.  and  S.;  b.  Attleborough,Mass.;  age  24;  res. 
Concord  (Fisherville,  now  Penacook);  app.  Maj.  Oct.  13,  '64;  must, 
in  Oct.  22,  '64,  for  1  yr.;  killed  Mar.  29,  '65,  Ft.  Steadman,  Va. 

Emerson,  John  S.  F.  and  S. ;  b.  Chester;  age  32;  res.  Sandwich; 
app.  Surg.  March  22,  '65;  must,  in  Apr.  16,  '65,  for  1  yr. ;  must, 
out  July  29,  '65.  Died  Sept.  23,  '86,  Lynn,  Mass. 

Raymond,  Hercules  W.  Co.  A;  b.  Georgia,  Vt. ;  age  24;  cred. 
Alstead;  enl.  Sept.  3,  '64,  for  1  yr. ;  must,  in  Sept.  13, '64,  as  Priv. ; 
must,  out  June  10,  '65.  P.  O.  ad.,  East  Alstead.  See  1  N.  H.  V. 


OTHER  ORGANIZATIONS.  123 

Rolfe,  Horace  H.  Co.  I;  b.  Concord;  age 30;  cred.  Alton;  enl.Feb. 
20,  '65,  for  3  yrs. ;  must,  in  Feb.  20,  '65,  as  1  Sergt. ;  app.  2  Lt.  July 
29,  '65;  not  must.;  must,  out  July  29,  '65,  as  1  Sergt.  Died  Oct. 
22,  '67,  Concord.  See  Miscell.  Organizations. 

Shepard,  Aaron  W.  F.  and  S.;  b.  Biddeford,  Me.;  age 23;  res. 
Nashua;  app.  Asst.  Surg.  Nov.  10,  '64;  must,  in  Dec.  18,  '64,  for  1 
yr. ;  must,  out  July  29,  '65.  P.  O.  ad.,  Brooklyn,  N.  Y. 

FIRST  N.  E.  CAVALRY. 

Hussey,  Charles  B.  Co.  L;  b.  Rochester;  age  18;  res.  Rochester ; 
enl.  Jan.  17,  '62;  must,  in  Jan.  18,  '62,  as  Priv. ;  disch.  Jan.  22, 
'62,  on  writ  of  habeas  corpus. 

FIRST  COMPANY,  N.  H.  HEAVY  ARTILLERY. 

Bickford,  Orion  W.  b.  Lebanon,  Me.;  age  44;  res.  Ossipee;  enl. 
July  2,  '63;  must,  in  July  2,  '63,  as  Priv.;  des.  July  22,  '64,  Ft. 
Constitution,  Portsmouth  Harbor.  Died  June  10,  '94,  Boston, 
Mass.  See  Unattached  Co.,  N.  H.  Y.,  and  State  Service. 

Center,  Benjamin  L.  b.  Londonderry;  age  44;  res.  Manchester; 
enl.  Apr.  23,  '63;  must,  in  May  25,  '63,  as  Muse.;  must,  out  Sept. 
11,  '65.  Died  May  23,  '83,  Nashua.  See  Unattached  Co.,  N.  H.  V. 

Short,  Ai  R.  b.  Plainfield;  age  33;  cred.  Claremont;  enl.  Aug.  31, 
'64,  for  1  yr. ;  must,  in  Aug.  31,  '64,  as  Priv.;  disch.  Aug.  31,  '65, 
Concord,  tm.  ex.  P.  O.  ad.,  Unity. 

SECOND   COMPANY,  N.   H.   HEAVY  ARTILLERY. 

Brown,  John  H.  b.  Chester;  age  "18"  ;  res.  Boscawen  (Fisherville, 
now  Penacook),  cred.  Boscawen;  enl.  Aug.  10,  '63;  must,  in  Aug. 
18,  '63.  as  Priv. ;  must,  out  Sept.  11,  '65.  Died  Jan.  20,  '75,  Notting 
ham. 

Pettengill,  Wyman.  b.  New  Hampton;  age  "  19";  cred.  London; 
enl.  Sept.  5,  '64,  for  1  yr. ;  must,  in  Sept.  5,  '64,  as  Priv.  Died,  dis. 
Mar.  14,  '65,  Ft.  Manstield,  Md. 

FIRST  COMPANY  REGIMENT,  N.   H.   HEAVY  ARTIL 
LERY. 

Abbott,  Jacob.  Co.  K;  b.  Ossipee;  age  35;  cred.  Ossipee;  enl.  Sept. 
15,  '64,  for  1  yr. ;  must,  in  Sept.  17,  '64,  as  Priv.;  must,  out  June 
15,  '65.  Died  Oct.  16,  '80. 

Center,  Benjamin  L.    Co.  A.    See  1  Co.,  N.  H.  H.  Art. 

Chase,  George  A.  Co.  H;  b.  Newport;  age  21 ;  cred.  Newport;  enl. 
Sept.  3,  '64,  for  1  yr. :  must,  in  Sept.  7,  '64,  as  Corp. ;  app.  Sergt. 
Jan.  19,  '65;  must,  out  June  15,  '65.  P.  O.  ad.,  Lowell,  Mass.  See 
State  Service. 


124  SERVICE  OF  MEMBERS  IN 

Pillsbury,  William  S.  Co.  D. ;  b.  Sutton;  age  31;  cred.  London 
derry;  app.  1  Lt.  Sept.  5,  '64;  must,  in  Sept.  7, '64,  for  1  yr.; 
must,  out  June  15,  '65.  P.  O.  ad.,  Londonderry.  See  4  N.  H.  V. 

Scott,  Josiah.  Co.  H;  b.  West  Fairlee,  Vt.;  age  28;  cred.  Sunapee; 
enl.  Sept.  3,  '64,  for  1  yr. ;  must,  in  Sept.  7,  '64,  as  Priv. ;  must,  out 
June  15,  '65.  P.  O.  ad.,  Sunapee. 

Short,  Ai  R.    Co.  A.     See  1  Co.,  N.  H.  H.  Art. 

Snell,  Nehemiah  C.  Co.  L;  b.  Madison;  age  42;  cred.  Madison; 
enl.  Sept.  17,  '64,  for  1  yr. ;  must,  in  Sept.  20,  '64,  as  Priv.;  must, 
out  June  15,  '65.  Died  April  14,  '71,  Madison. 

Wilson,  Silas  Henry.  Co.  L;  b.  Windham;  age  28;  cred.  Salem; 
enl.  Sept.  7,  '64,  for  1  yr.;  must,  in  Sept.  14,  '64,  as  Sergt.;  must, 
out  June  15,  '65.  P.  O.  ad.,  Ayer  Village,  Mass. 

FIRST   REGIMENT    CAVALRY. 

Caldwell,  Ira.  Co.  B;  b.  Pelham;  age"19'?;  cred.  Dublin;  enl. 
Mar.  29,  '64;  must,  in  Mar.  29,  '64,  as  Priv.  Died,  dis.  Mar.  14,  '65, 
Nashua. 

SECOND  U.  S.    SHARPSHOOTERS. 

Hodge,  Joseph  K.  Co.  G;  b.  Lisbon;  age  20;  res.  Lancaster;  enl. 
Oct.  14,  '61;  must,  in  Dec.  12,  '61,  as  Priv.;  wd.  Sept.  17,  '62, 
Antietam,  Md. ;  discli.  disab.  Dec.  3,  '62,  New  York  city.  See 
State  Service. 

UNATTACHED    COMPANY,  N.   H.  V. 

Austin,  Wanton  J.  b.  Providence,  R.  I. ;  age  25;  res.  Somersworth ; 
enl.  April  1,  '62;  must,  in  May  15,  '62,  as  Priv.;  tr.  to  Co.  E,  Aug. 
6,  '62;  disch.  Oct.  22,  '62,  Concord.  See  State  Service. 

Ayer,  James  C.  b.  Deerfield;  age  "39";  res.  Somersworth;  enl. 
April  1,  '62;  must,  in  May  15,  '62,  as  Sergt.;  tr.  to  Co.  E.,  Aug.  6, 
'62;  disch.  disab.  Dec.  16,  '63,  Baltimore,  Md.  P.  O.  ad.,  Somers 
worth.  See  State  Service. 

Bean,  Amos  S.  b.  Salisbury;  age  21;  res.  Manchester;  enl.  Apr.  17, 
'62;  must,  in  May  15,  '62,  as  Priv.;  tr.  to  Co.  E,  Aug.  6,  '62;  disch. 
disab.  Jan.  22,  '64,  Camp  Dennison,  Ohio.  P.  O.  ad.,Marlborough, 
Mass. 

Bickford,  Orion  W.  b.  Lebanon,  Me.;  age  43;  res.  Somersworth; 
enl.  Apr.  1,  '62;  must,  in  May  15,  '62,  as  Priv.;  tr.  to  Co.  E,  Aug.  6, 
'62;  disch.  Oct.  22,  '62,  Concord.  Died  June  10,  '94,  Boston,  Mass. 
See  1  Co.,  N.  H.  H.  Art.,  and  State  Service. 

Bond,  Edson.  b.  Chelsea,  Vt. ;  age  45;  res.  Manchester;  enl.  April 
21,  '62;  must,  in  May  15,  '62,  as  Priv.;  tr.  to  Co.  E,  Aug.  6,  '62; 
disch.  Oct.  22,  '62,  Concord.  Died  Mar.  9,  '82,  Manchester. 


OTHER  ORGANIZATIONS.  125 

Brown,  Asa.  b.  Northfield;  age  44;  res.  Manchester;  enl.  April  23r 
'62;  must,  in  May  15,  '62,  as  Priv. ;  tr.  to  Co.  E,  Aug.  6,  '62.  Died, 
dis.  July  18,  '63,  Milldale,  Miss. 

Center,  Benjamin  L.  b.  Londonderry;  age  43;  res.  Londonderry; 
enl.  Apr.  15,  '62;  must,  in  May  15,  '62,  as  Muse.;  tr.  to  Co.  E,  Aug. 
6,  '62;  disch.  Oct.  22,  '62,  Concord.  See  1  Co.,  N.  H.  H.  Art. 

Chisholm,  Thomas  Melville,  b.  Boston,  Mass.;  age  24;  res.  Mil 
ton;  enl.  Apr.  1,  '62;  must,  in  May  15,  '62,  as  ISergt. ;  tr.  to  Co.  Er 
Aug.  6,  '62;  app.  2  Lt.  Co.  B,  Aug.  10,  '62;  resigned  Oct.  9,  '62.  See 
U.  S.  C.  T.  and  State  Service. 

Clark,  Rufus  W.  b.  Illinois;  age  19;  res.  Manchester;  enl.  May  6r 
'62;  must,  in  May  15,  '62,  as  Priv.;  tr.  to  Co.  E,  Aug.  6,  '62;  killed 
Dec.  13,  '62,  Fredericksburg,  Va. 

Cleaves,  George  P.  b.  Kennebunk,  Me. ;  age  18;  res.  Somersworth  j 
enl.  Apr.  1,  '62;  must,  in  May  15,  '62,  as  Priv.;  tr.  to  Co.  E,  Aug. 
6,  '62;  killed  May  12,  '64,  Spottsylvania,  Va.  See  State  Service. 

Curtis,  William  B.  b.  Maiden,  Mass.;  age  27;  res.  Somersworth; 
enl.  Apr.  16,  '62;  must,  in  May  15,  '62,  as  Priv.;  tr.  to  Co.  E, 
Aug.  6,  '62.  Died,  dis.  Aug.  17,  '63,  Cairo,  111. 

Davis,  Andrew  J.  b.  Somersworth;  age  18;  res.  Somersworth;  enl. 
May  5,  '62;  must,  in  May  15,  '62,  as  Priv.;  tr.  to  Co.  E,  Aug.  6,  '62; 
wd.  Dec.  13,  '62,  Fredericksburg,  Va.  Died,  dis.  July  20,  '63,  Mill- 
dale,  Miss. 

Elwell,  John  F.  b.  North  Berwick,  Me.;  age  18;  res.  Somersworth; 
enl.  April  15,  '62;  must,  in  May  15,  '62,  as  Priv.;  tr.  to  Co.  E,  Aug. 
6,  '62;  disch.  May  14,  '65,  Alexandria,  Va.,  tm.  ex.  P.  O.  ad.r 
South  Lawrence,  Mass. 

Fernald,  Owen.  b.  Eliot,  Me.;  age  38;  res.  Eliot,  Me.;  enl.  Apr. 
14,  '62;  must,  in  May  15,  '62,  as  Priv.;  tr.  to  Co.  E,  Aug.  6,  '62. 
Died,  dis.  Jan.  27,  '63,  Falmouth,  Va. 

Flanders,  William  C.  b.  Boston,  Mass.;  age  18;  res.  Dunbarton; 
enl.  Apr.  19,  '62;  must,  in  May  15,  '62,  as  Priv.;  tr.  to  Co.  E,  Aug. 
6,  '62;  to  Co.  F,  3  I.  C.,  Sept.  16,  '63;  disch.  May  15,  '65,  to  date 
May  14,  '65,  Hartford,  Conn.,  tm.  ex.  Died  May  2,  '80,  Goffstown. 
See  4  N.  H.  V. 

Frisbee,  Howard  S.  b.  Kittery,  Me.;  age  19;  res.  Kittery,  Me. ; 
enl.  Mar.  27,  '62;  must,  in  May  15,  '62,  as  Priv.;  tr.  to  Co.  E,  Aug. 
6,  '62;  disch.  May  19,  '65,  Concord,  tm.  ex.  P.  O.  ad.,  Portsmouth. 

Gilson,  Alonzo.  b.  Portland,  Me. ;  age  22;  res.  New  Castle;  enl.  Apr. 
1,  '62;  must,  in  May  15,  '62,  as  Priv.;  tr.  to  Co.  E,  Aug.  6,  '62; 
disch.  May  14,  '65,  Alexandria,  Va.,  tm.  ex.  P.  O.  ad.,  Wolfe- 
borough.  See  State  Service. 


126  SERVICE  OF  MEMBERS  IN 

Goodwin,  Edward  F.  b.  South  Berwick,  Me. ;  age  31;  res.  South 
Berwick,  Me.;  enl.  Apr.  16,  '62;  must,  in  May  15,  '62,  as  Priv. ;  tr. 
to  Co.  E,  Aug.  6,  '62;  disch.  May  14,  '65,  Alexandria,  Va.,  tm.  ex. 

Gove,  James  B.  age  39;  res.  Concord;  app.  1  Lt.  May  15, '62;  must, 
in  May  15,  '62;  tr.  to  Co.  E,  Aug.  6,  '62;  disch.  Oct.  22,  '62,  Con 
cord. 

Gray,  Benjamin,  b.  Sheffield,  Vt.;  age  23;  res.  Holderness;  enl. 
Apr.  11,  '62;  must,  in  May  15,  '62,  as  Priv.;  tr.  to  Co.  E,  Aug.  6, 
'62;  disch.  May  14,  '65,  Alexandria,  Va.,  tm.  ex.  P.  O.  ad.,  Bris 
tol.  See  1  N.  H.  V. 

Hackett,  Frank  B.  b.  St.  Albans,  Me.;  age  20;  res.  Manchester; 
enl.  May  6,  '62;  must,  in  May  15,  '62,  as  Priv. ;  tr.  to  Co.  E,  Aug.  6, 
'62;  wd.  Sept.  14,  '62,  South  Mountain,  Md.;  disch.  disab.  Dec.  22, 
'62,  Washington,  D.  C.  See  1  X.  H.  Y. 

Hale,  Thomas,  b.  Newbury,  Mass. ;  age  55;  res.  Laconia;  enl.  May 
13,  '62;  must,  in  May  15,  '62;  as  Muse.;  tr.  to  Co.  E,  Aug.  6,  '62; 
disch.  Oct.  22,  '62,  Concord.  See  4  N".  H.  Y.,  Miscell.  Organiza 
tions,  and  State  Service. 

Hoit,  John  B.  b.  Bristol;  age  22;  res.  Manchester;  enl.  Apr.  25,  '62; 
must,  in  May  15,  '62,  as  Priv.;  tr  to  Co.  E,  Aug.  6,  '62;  app.  Corp.; 
disch.  May  14,  '65,  Alexandria,  Ya.,  tm.  ex.  P.  O.  ad.,  Wilmot 
Flat. 

Hutchinson,  Asa  T.  b.  St.  John,  IS".  B. ;  age  28;  res.  Manchester; 
app.  2  Lt.  May  15,  '62;  must,  in  May  15,  '62;  app.  1  Lt.  Co.  E,  Aug. 
10,  '62;  Capt.  Co.  D,  Jan.  1,  '63;  must,  out  June  10,  '65.  See  State 
Service. 

Joy,  Charles  H.  b.  Somersworth;  age  19;  res.  South  Berwick,  Me.; 
enl.  Apr.  1,  '62;  must,  in  May  15,  '62.  as  Priv.;  tr.  to  Co.  E,  Aug. 
6,  '62;  disch.  May  14,  '65,  Alexandria,  Ya.,  tm.  ex.  P.  O.  ad., 
Mendocino,  Cal.  See  State  Service. 

Jones,  Jabez  S.  b.  Seabrook;  age  27;  res.  Salisbury,  Mass.;  enl. 
Apr.  1,  '62;  must,  in  May  15,  '62,  as  Priv.;  tr.  to  Co.  E,  Aug.  6,  '62; 
disch.  disab.  Dec.  4,  '62,  Falmouth,  Ya.  See  State  Service. 

Kidder,  William  W.  b.  Canaan;  age  18;  res.  Concord  (Fisherville, 
now  Penacook);  enl.  May  6.  '62;  must,  in  May  15,  '62,  as  Priv.;  tr. 
to  Co.  E,  Aug.  6,  '62;  disch.  disab.  Oct.  22,  '62,  Pleasant  Yalley, 
Md.  Died  Jan.  23,  '79,  Brockton,  Mass. 

Mayo,  Lysander  R.  b.  Waterville,  Me.;  age  22;  res.  Somersworth; 
enl.  Apr.  8,  '62;  must,  in  May  15,  '62,  as  Priv. ;  tr.  to  Co.  E,  Aug.  6, 
'62;  app.  Corp.;  wd.  Sept.  30,  '64,  Poplar  Springs  Church,  Ya. ; 
disch.  May  14,  '65,  tm.  ex.  P.  O.  ad.,  Salmon  Falls. 

McDowell,  Robert,  b.  Quebec,  Can. ;  age  22;  res.  Manchester;  enl. 
Apr.  25,  '62;  must,  in  May  15,  '62,  as  Priv.;  tr.  to  Co.  E,  Aug.  6, 
'62;  des.  June  4,  '63,  Nicholasville,  Ky. 


OTHER  ORGANIZATIONS.  127 

Norris,  Cyrus  B.  b.  Upper  Gilmanton;  age  23;  res.  Manchester; 
enl.  Apr.  21,  '62;  must,  in  May  15,  '62,  as  Corp.;  tr.  to  Co.  E, 
Aug.  6, '62;  app.  1  Sergt. ;  disch.  May  14,  '65,  Alexandria,  Va., 
tm.  ex.  P.  O.  ad.,  Belmont.  See  State  Service. 

Ober,  Evert,  b.  Johnson,  Yt. ;  age  25;  res.  New  Boston;  enl.  Apr.  1, 
'62;  must,  in  May  15,  '62,  as  Priv.;  tr.  to  Co.  E,  Aug.  6,  '62;  disch. 
disab.  Nov.  21,  '62,  Baltimore,  Md.  See  State  Service. 

O'Reilly,  Francis,  b.  Canterbury;  age  23;  res.  Canterbury;  enl. 
Apr.  17,  '62;  must,  in  May  15,  '62,  as  Priv.;  tr.  to  Co.  E,  Aug.  6, 
'62;  app.  Corp.  Aug.  6,  '62;  captd.  May  12,  '64,  Spottsylvania,  Ya. ; 
released;  disch.  May  30,  '65,  Baltimore,  Md%,  tm.  ex.  See  State 
Service. 

Parsons,  Eugene  E.  b.  Chelsea,  Mass.;  age  18;  res.  Lowell,  Mass.; 
enl.  Apr.  15,  '62;  must,  in  May  15,  '62,  as  Priv.;  tr.  to  Co.  E,  Aug. 
6,  '62;  to  Co.  K,  22  Y.  K.  C.,  May  16,  '64.  Died  Jan.  23,  '65, 
Lowell,  Mass. 

Paul,  Moses  N.  b.  Eliot,  Me.;  age  21;  res.  Eliot,  Me.;  enl.  May  15, 
'62;  must,  in  May  15,  '62,  as  Priv.;  tr.  to  Co.  E,  Aug.  6,  '62;  wd. 
Sept.  14,  '62,  South  Mountain,  Md. ;  disch.  disab.  Dec.  15, '63, 
Ft.  Schuyler,  N.  Y.  P.  O.  ad.,  Eliot,  Me. 

Perham,  Rodney,  b.  Lyndeborough ;  age  27;  res.  Wilton;  enl.  Apr. 
1,  '62;  must,  in  May  15,  '62,  as  Corp. ;  tr.  to  Co.  E,  Aug.  6,  '62;  app. 
Sergt.  Aug.  6,  '62;  wd.  May  12,  '64,  Spottsylvania,  Ya. ;  disch.  May 
15,  '65,  Concord,  tm.  ex.  P.  O.  ad.,  Wilton.  See  State  Service. 

Provencher,  Joseph  E.  b.  Chambly,  Can.;  age  20;  res.  Manches 
ter;  enl.  Apr.  19,  '62;  must,  in  May  15,  '62,  as  Priv.;  tr.  to  Co.  E, 
Aug.  6,  '62;  wd.  June  1,  '64,  Totopotomoy,  Ya. ;  sent  to  regt.  Feb. 
'28,  '65,  from  McClellan  Gen.  Hosp.,  Philadelphia,  Pa.  N.  f.  r. 
A.  G.  O. 

Rand,  Francis  W.  b.  Eye;  age  22;  res.  Rye;  enl.  Mar.  27,  '62; 
must,  in  May  15,  '62,  as  Priv.;  tr.  to  Co.  E,  Aug.  6,  '62.  Died, 
dis.  Jan.  20,  '64,  Camp  Nelson,  Ky. 

Roberts,  Charles  C.  b.  Somersworth;  age  21;  res.  Rollinsford; 
enl.  May  5,  '62;  must,  in  May  15,  '62,  as  Priv.;  tr.  to  Co.  E,  Aug. 
6,  '62;  wd.  May  18,  '64,  Spottsylvania,  Ya.;  Sept.  30,  '64,  Poplar 
Springs  Church,  Ya. ;  disch.  disab.  May  29,  '65,  Manchester.  P.  O. 
ad.,  Walnut,  Iowa. 

Roberts,  Daniel  B.  b.  Lowell,  Mass.;  age  23;  res.  Dunbarton; 
enl.  Apr.  19,  '62;  must,  in  May  15,  '62,  as  Priv.;  tr.  to  Co.  E,  Aug. 
6,  '62;  des.  June  16,  '64,  near  Petersburg,  Ya. ;  gd.  from  des.  Jan. 
3,  '65;  dishon.  disch.  by  sentence  G.  C.  M.,  Mar.  18,  '65,  Hancock 
Station,  Ya.  P.  O.  ad.,  Laconia. 


128  SERVICE  OF  MEMBERS  IN 

Robinson,  John  W.  b.  Stratham;  age  34;  res.  Somersworth ;  enl. 
Apr.  1,  '62;  must,  in  May  15.  '62,  as  Corp.;  tr.  to  Co.  E,  Aug.  6, 
'62;  disch.  disab.  May  31,  '65,  Concord.  Died  Apr.  14,  '93,  Haver- 
hill,  Mass.  See  State  Service. 

Ho  well,  Joseph  S.  b.  Chester;  age  25;  res.  Chester;  enl.  Apr.  23, 
'62;  must,  in  May  15,  '62,  as  Priv. ;  tr.  to  Co.  E.,  Aug.  6,  '62;  wd. 
Dec.  13,  '62,  Fredericksburg,  Ya.;  disch.  disab.  Feb.  17,  '63, 
Washington,  D.  C.  Supposed  identical  with  Joseph  S.  Rowell,  1 
Co.,  N.  H.  H.  Art. 

Sargent,  Henry  O.  b.  Concord;  age  23;  res.  Manchester;  enl.  Apr. 
1,  '62;  must,  in  May  15,  '62,  as  Sergt. ;  tr.  to  Co.  E,  Aug.  6,  '62; 
app.  1  Sergt.;  2  Lt.  Co.  A,  Mar.  1,  '63;  disch.  disab.  Dec.  23,  '63. 
Died,  Apr.  24,  '94,  Wilton.  See  State  Service. 

Seaver,  Thomas  B.  b.  Scarborough,  Me.;  age  43;  res.  Scarbor 
ough,  Me. ;  enl.  Apr.  28,  '62;  must,  in  May  15,  '62,  as  Priv.;  tr.  to 
Co.  E,  Aug.  6,  '62;  disch.  Aug.  22,  '62,  Concord.  See  2  N.  H.  Y. 
and  Y.  R.  C. 

Shepherd,  Enoch  O.  b.  Amherst;  age  22;  res.  Amherst;  enl.  Apr. 
21,  '62;  must,  in  May  15,  '62,  as  Priv.;  tr.  to  Co.  E,  Aug.  6, 
'62;  killed  Dec.  13,  '62,  Fredericksburg,  Ya. 

Simpson,  Henry  H.  b.  York,  Me. ;  age  21 ;  res.  York,  Me. ;  enl.  Apr. 
14,  '62;  must,  in  May  15,  '62,  as  Priv. ;  tr.  to  Co.  E,  Aug.  6, '62 ;  wd. 
Sept.  14,  '62,  South  Mountain,  Md. ;  disch.  disab.  Oct.  23,  '62,  Ft. 
Wood,  N.  Y.  H.  See  State  Service. 

Skillings,  William  L.  b.  Waterf ord,  Me.  ;  age  18 ;  res.  Waterf ord, 
Me. ;  enl.  Apr.  17,  '62;  must,  in  May  15,  '62,  as  Priv.;  tr.  to  Co.  E, 
Aug.  6,  '62;  to  Co.  B,  Aug.  '62;  mis.  Dec.  13,  '62,  Fredericksburg, 
Ya. ;  gd.  from  mis. ;  app.  Sergt.;  mis.  Sept.  30,  '64,  Poplar  Springs 
Church,  Ya. ;  gd.  from  mis.;  disch.  May  15,  '65,  Concord,  tm.  ex. 

Spaulding,  Daniel,  b.  Warner;  age  39;  res.  Newport:  enl.  May  6, 
'62;  must,  in  May  15,  '62,  as  Priv.;  tr.  to  Co.  E,  Aug.  6,  '62;  disch. 
May  14,  '65,  Alexandria,  Ya.,  tm.  ex. 

Stevens,  Anthony  C.  b.  Stoddard;  age  18;  res.  Stoddard;  enl. 
Apr.  23,  '62;  must,  in  May  15,  '62,  as  Priv.;  tr.  to  Co.  E,  Aug.  6, 
'62;  killed  Dec.  13,  '62,  Fredericksburg,  Ya. 

Stevens,  Charles  S.  b.  Stoddard;  age  24;  res,  Stoddard;  enl.  Apr. 
17,  '62;  must,  in  May  15,  '62,  as  Priv.  ;  tr.  to  Co.  E,  Aug.  6,  '62; 
app.  Corp.  Aug.  6,  '62;  captd.  May  12,  '64,  Spottsylvania,  Ya. ; 
gd.  fr.  capture  ;  app.  Sergt.  ;  disch.  May  14,  '65,  Alexandria,  Ya.» 
tm.  ex.  P.  O.  ad.,  Manchester. 

Stewart,  Jonathan  S.  b.  Wilmington,  Mass.;  age  21;  res.  Holder- 
ness;  enl.  Apr.  1,  '62;  must,  in  May  15,  '62,  as  Priv.;  tr.  to  Co.  E, 
Aug.  6,  '62;  app.  Corp.  Aug.  6,  '62;  app.  Sergt.;  wd.  July  30,  '64, 


OTHER  ORGANIZATIONS.  129 

Mine  Explosion,  Petersburg,  Ya. ;  disch.  May  14,  '65,  Alexandria, 
Va.,  tm.  ex.     P.  O.  ad.  Nat.  Home,  Wis.     See  State  Service. 

Thompson,  William  B.  b.  New  York  city;  age  21;  res.  Somers- 
worth;  enl.  Apr.  15,  '62;  must,  in  May  15,  '62,  as  Priv.;  tr.  to  Co. 
E,  Aug.  6,  '62;  killed  May  12,  '64,  Spottsylvania,  Va. 

Whitney,  Charles  S.  b.  Boscawen;  age  18;  res.  Boscawen;  enl. 
May  15,  '62  ;  must,  in  May  15,  '62,  as  Priv. ;  tr.  to  Co.  E,  Aug.  6, 
'62;  des.  to  the  enemy  May  4,  '64,  Bristow  Station,  Va. 

Worster,  Isaac,  b.  Lebanon,  Me.  ;  age  18;  res.  Somersworth;  enl. 
Apr.  15,  '62;  must,  in  May  15,  '62,  as  Priv.  ;  tr.  to  Co.  E,  Aug.  6, 
'62;  captd.  May  12,  '64,  Spottsylvania,  Va. ;  released  Feb.  28,  '65; 
disch.  June  6,  '65,  Concord,  tm.  ex. 

Worster,  Reuben,  b.  Lebanon,  Me.;  age  23;  res.  Somersworth; 
enl.  Apr.  15,  '62;  must,  in  May  15,  '62,  as  Priv.;  tr.  to  Co.  E,  Aug. 
6,  '62;  disch.  disab.  Mar.  13,  '63,  Providence,  R.  I.  P.  O.  ad., 
Portsmouth. 

LAFAYETTE  ARTILLERY. 

Hamblett,  Judson  A.  b.  Milford;  age  21;  res.  Milford,  cred.  Mil- 
ford;  enl.  Aug.  1,  '64;  must,  in  Aug.  1,  '64,  as  Priv.;  must,  out 
Sept.  23,  '64.  P.  O.  ad.,  Nashua.  See  8  N.  H.  V. 

VETERAN  RESERVE  CORPS. 

Chase,  Wallace  M.  Co.  D,  13  Regt.;  b.  Vermont;  age  "19": 
cred.  Barnstead;  enl.  Jan.  19,  '64;  must,  in  Jan.  19,  '64,  as  Priv. 
Died,  dis.  Jan.  5,  '65,  Portland,  Me. 

Currier,  Andrew.  243  Co.,  1  Batt'l;  b.  Newton;  age  20;  cred. 
Manchester;  enl.  Aug.  24,  '64;  must,  in  Aug.  24,  '64,  as  Priv.; 
tr.  to  Co.  A,  9  V.  R.  C. ;  disch.  Nov.  16,  '65,  Washington,  D.  C. 
P.  O.  ad.,  Newton,  Mass. 

Cutler,  George  W.  Co.  E,  3  Regt. ;  b.  Boston,  Mass. ;  age  24;  cred. 
Bedford;  enl.  Nov.  28,  '63;  must,  in  Nov.  28,  '63,  as  Priv.;  disch. 
disab.  Feb.  2,  '65,  Washington,  D.  C.  See  6  N.  H.  V. 

Davis,  Albert  H.  Co.  D,  24  Regt. ;  b.  Lebanon;  age  27;  cred. 
Springfield;  enl.  Sept.  6,  '64;  must,  in  Sept.  6,  '64,  as  Priv.;  disch. 
disab.  Aug.  4,  '65,  Washington,  D.  C.  P.  O.  ad.,  Lakeport. 

Glidden,  Charles  W.  82  Co.,  2  Batt'l;  b.  Graf  ton;  age  "18"; 
cred.  Rumney;  enl.  Aug.  12,  '63;  must,  in  Aug.  12,  '65,  as  Priv.; 
disch.  disab.  (wd.  prior  service)  Sept.  22,  '64,  Alexandria,  Va. 

Golden,  Calvin.  Co.  K,  24  Regt. ;  b.  Sanbornton;  age  "46";  cred. 
Hill;  enl.  Sept.  6,  '64;  must,  in  Sept.  6,  '64,  as  Priv. ;  disch.  disab. 
Jan.  1,  '65,  Washington,  D.  C.  P.  O.  ad.,  Bristol. 


130  SERVICE  OF  MEMBERS  IN 

Howard,  Clarence.  Co.  B,  13  Kegt. ;  b.  Rochester;  age  "18"; 
cred.  Rochester;  enl.  Dec.  29,  '63;  must,  in  Dec.  29,  '63,  as  Priv. ; 
disch.  Nov.  15,  '65,  Boston,  Mass.  P.  O.  ad.,  Rochester. 

Humphrey,  John  H.  Co.  A,  24  Regt. ;  b.  Benson,  Vt.  ;  age  27 ; 
cred.  Cornish;  enl.  Aug.  31,  '64;  must,  in  Aug.  31,  '64,  as  Priv.; 
app.  Com.  Sergt.  to  date  July  1,  '65;  disch.  Nov.  14,  '65,  Washing 
ton,  D.  C.  P.  O.  ad.,  Windsor,  Vt. 

Jolley,  Joseph.  75  Co.,  2  Batt'l;  b.  Champlain,  N.  Y.  ;  age  "34"  ; 
cred.  Keene;  enl.  Dec.  11,  '63;  must,  in  Dec.  11,  '63,  as  Priv.; 
disch.  disab.  Oct.  21,  '64,  Concord.  P.  O.  ad.,  Keene. 

Judd,  Thomas  G.  Co.  E,  3  Regt.;  b.  Stafford,  Vt. ;  age  42;  cred. 
Manchester;  enl.  Aug.  19,  '64:  must,  in  Aug.  19,  '64,  as  Priv.; 
disch.  Nov.  20,  '65,  Augusta,  Me. 

Lathe,  Hiram  S.     Co.  B,  18  Regt. ;  b.  Coventry,  Vt. ;  age  21 ;  cred. 

Deering;  enl.  Aug.  12,  '64;  must,  in  Aug.  12,  '64,  as  Priv.;  dishon. 
*       disch.  June  24,  '76,  to  date  Aug.  13,  '65,  by  Commanding  General 

Military  Division  of  the  Atlantic.     P.  O.  ad.,  Lynn,  Mass. 

Rugg,  John  H.  Co.  E,  3  Regt.;  b.  Hinsdale;  age  43;  cred.  Clare- 
mont;  enl.  Feb.  18,  '65;  must,  in  Feb.  18,  '65,  as  Priv.;  disch. 
disab.  Sept.  10,  '65,  Augusta,  Me.  P.  O.  ad.,  Claremont. 

Seaver,  Thomas  B.  Co.  B,  13  Regt.;  b.  Scarborough;  age  43; 
cred.  Conway;  enl.  Sept.  25,  '63;  must,  in  Sept.  25,  '63,  as  Priv.; 
tr.  to  187  Co.,  1  Batt'l,  V.  R.  C.,  Jan.  16,  '64;  to  Co.  D,  9  V.  R.  C., 
Sept.  28,  '65;  disch.  Nov.  18,  '65,  Washington,  D.  C.  Died  Aug. 
11,  '83,  Nat.  Home,  Togus,  Me.  See  2  N.  H.  V.  and  Unattached 
Co.,  N.  H.  V. 

Severance,  Benjamin.  Unas'd;  b.  Kingston;  age  "40";  cred. 
Concord;  enl.  Aug.  9,  '64;  must,  in  Aug.  9,  '64,  as  Priv.;  disch. 
disab.  Oct.  24,  '65,  Washington,  D.  C. 

Sullivan,  Michael.  69  Co.,  2  Batt'l;  b.  Ireland;  age  44;  cred.  Con- 
way;  enl.  Aug.  20,  '63;  must,  in  Aug.  20,  '63;  tr.  to  39  Co.,  2 
Batt'l,  V.  R.  C. ;  disch.  disab.  July  24,  '65,  Washington,  D.  C. 

Tennant,  Matthew  P.  Co.  F,  13  Regt.;  b.  Merrimack;  age  20; 
cred.  Rumney  ;  enl.  Aug.  27,  '63;  must,  in  Aug.  27,  '63,  as  Priv. ; 
assigned  to  Co.  F,  13  V.  R.  C.,  Nov.,  '63;  disch^Nov.  13,  '65,  Con 
cord.  Died  Feb.  6,  '86,  Goffstown. 

Thompson,  John.  Unas'd;  b.  Dublin,  Ir.;  age  "19";  cred.  Roch 
ester;  enl.  Dec.  29,  '63;  must,  in  Dec.  29,  '63,  as  Priv.;  disch.  Nov. 
15,  '65,  Boston,  Mass. 

Towle,  Frank  Patrick.  Unas'd;  b.  Charlestown,  Mass.;  age  19; 
cred.  Barrington;  enl.  Dec.  29,  '63;  must,  in  Dec.  29,  '63,  as  Priv. ; 
disch.  Nov.  17,  '65,  Galloup's  Isl.,  B.  H.,  Mass.  Died  May,  '90, 
Augusta,  Me. 


OTHER  ORGANIZATIONS.  131 

Vallely,  John.  Co.  B,  13  Regt. ;  b.  Ireland;  age  "45";  cred.  Mad- 
bury;  enl.  Dec.  22,  '63;  must,  in  Dec.  22,  '63,  as  Priv. ;  disch. 
disab.  Nov.  28,  '64,  Boston,  Mass. 

Walker,  Martin  L.  Co.  A,  9  Regt.;  b.  Boscawen;  age  39;  cred. 
Sutton;  enl.  Sept.  3, '64 ;  must,  in  Sept.  3,  '64,  as  Priv.;  discb. 
Nov.  16,  '65,  Washington,  D.  C.  Died  April  1,  '92. 

Weeks,  John  S.  Co.  E,  13  Regt.;  b.  Exeter;  age  "50"  ;  cred.  Som- 
ersworth;  enl.  Dec.  29,  '63;  must,  in  Dec.  29,  '63,  as  Priv.;  disch. 
disab.  Sept.  5,  '64.  P.  O.  ad.,  South  Newmarket  (Newfields). 

Wells,  Milo  E.  Co.  D,  13  Regt. ;  b.  Littleton;  age  25;  res.  Little 
ton,  cred.  Roxbury,  Mass.;  enl.  June  21,  '64;  must,  in  June  21, 
'64,  as  Priv.;  disch.  Nov.  30,  '65.  P.  O.  ad.,  Monroe.  See  4  N. 
H.  V. 

Wescott,  Gustine  M.  69  Co.,  2  Batt'l;  b.  Danbury;  age  30;  cred. 
Rumney;  enl.  Jan.  1,  '64;  must,  in  Jan.  1,  '64.  as  Priv. ;  des.  Dec. 
15,  '64,  Manchester.  P.  O.  ad.,  Rumney. 

U.  S.  COLORED  TROOPS. 

Chisholm,  Thomas  Melville.  Co.  K,  108  Inf. ;  b.  Boston,  Mass. ; 
res.  Milton;  must,  in  June  22,  '64,  as  2  Lt. ;  must,  as  1  Lt.  Oct.  1, 
'65;  must,  out  Mar.  21,  '66.  See  Unattached  Co.,  N.  H.  V.,  and 
State  Service. 

Quimby,  H.  Baxter.  108  Inf.;  b.  Lisbon;  age  25;  res.  Lisbon; 
app.  2  Lt. ;  must,  in  Sept.  20,  '65;  must,  out  Mar.  21,  '66.  See  Mis- 
cell.  Organizations. 

Whitfleld,  Smith  A.  F.  and  S.  123  Inf.;  b.  Francestown;  age  23; 
res.  Francestown;  app.  Lt.  Col.;  must,  in  Oct.  15,  '64;  must,  out 
Oct.  16,  '65.  Died  Dec.  2,  '95,  Chicago,  111.  See  2  N.  H.  V. 

MISCELLANEOUS    ORGANIZATIONS. 

Bennett,  Alden  B.  Co.  B,  39  Mass.  Inf.  ;  b.  Dunstable,  Mass. ;  age 
44;  res.  Milford;  enl.  for  3  yrs.  ;  must,  in  June  10,  '63,  as  Muse. ; 
tr.  to  Co.  M,  32  Mass.  Inf.,  June  2,  '65;  disch.  July  1,  '65.  Died 
May  15,  '91.  See  1  N.  H.  V.  and  State  Service. 

Buswell,  Daniel  C.  Co.  B,  1  Minn.  Inf.;  b.  Lebanon;  age  25;  res. 
Lebanon;  enl.  Apr.  29,  '61,  for  3  yrs.;  must,  in  May  29,  '61,  as 
Priv. ;  disch.  Aug.  31,  '62,  to  accept  promotion. 

Currier,  Julius  C.  Co.  D,  17  Mass.  Inf.;  b.  Newton;  age  "24"; 
res.  Newton;  enl.  Apr.  27,  '61,  for  3  yrs.;  must,  in  July  22,  '61,  as 
Priv. ;  des.  Aug.  13,  '61.  See  3  N.  H.  Y. 

Gibson,  George  W.  Co.  C,  4  Yt.  Inf. ;  b.  Petersham,  Mass. ;  age 
21 ;  res.  Charlestown,  cred.  Yt. ;  enl.  Aug.  22,  '61,  for  3  yrs. ;  must. 


132  SERVICE  OF  MEMBERS  IN 

in  Sept.  21, '61,  as  Priv. ;  wd.  and  captd.  June  29,  '62,  Savage's 
Station,  Va. ;  par.  July  22,  '62;  discli.  wds.  Sept.  30,  '62,  Balti 
more,  Md.  Supposed  identical  with  George  W.  Gibson,  Co.  G, 
9  N.  H.  V. 

Hale,  Thomas.  Co.  A,  31  Me.  Inf.  ;  b.  Newbury,  Mass. ;  age  56 ; 
res.  Laconia;  enl.  Feb.  16,  '64,  for  3  yrs. ;  must,  in  Mar.  3,  '64,  as 
Priv. ;  must,  out  July  15,  '65,  Alexandria,  Va.  Died  Dec.  6,  '80, 
Laconia.  See  4  N.  H.  V.,  Unattached  Co.,  N.  H.  V.,  and  State 
Service. 

Hobson,  Edgar  James.  Band,  14  Mass.  Inf.;  b.  Pennsylvania;  age 
27;  res.  Brookline;  enl.  July  5,  '61,  for  3  yrs.;  must,  in  July  5,  '61, 
as  Muse. ;  discli.  Aug.  14,  '62.  P.  O.  ad.,  Concord. 

Quimby,  H.  Baxter.  39  Inf.,  U.  S.  A.;  b.  Lisbon;  age  26;  res. 
Lisbon;  app.  2  Lt.  July  28, '66;  1  Lt.  July  31,  '67;  tr.  to  25  Inf. 
Apr.  20,  '69;  app.  Capt.  Dec.  31,  '80.  Died  Feb.  19,  '83,  Ft.  Snell- 
ing,  Minn.  See  U.  S.  C.  T. 

Rolfe,  Horace  H.  Co.  H,  8  Me.  Inf.  ;  b.  Concord;  age  27;  res.  Con 
cord;  enl.  Aug.  12,  '61,  for  3  yrs;  must,  in  Sept.  7,  '61,  as  1  Sergt; 
app.  2  Lt.  Dec.  24,  '61;  resigned,  disab.  May  23,  '62;  must,  in  Oct. 
5,  '63,  as  Sergt.  Co.  E,  2  Mass.  H.  Art. ;  tr.  to  U.  S.  Navy  May  17,  '64, 
as  a  Seaman;  served  on  U.  S.  S.  "Agawam"  and  "Osceola"; 
disch.  Nov.  18,  '64.  See  18  IS".  H.  V. 

Smith,  Dexter  D.  Co.  B,  6  Inf.,  Mass.  Vol.  Militia;  b.  Frances- 
town;  age  37;  res.  New  Hampshire;  enl.  for  9  mos. ;  must,  in 
Sept.  27,  '62,  as  Priv. ;  must,  out  June  3,  '63.  P.  O.  ad.,  Franklin. 

U.  S.  NAVY. 

Blaisdell,  Charles  M.  b.  Somersworth;  age  18;  enl.  Dec.  9,  '61,  at 
Boston,  Mass.,  for  3  yrs.,  as  a  Landsman;  served  on  U.  S.  S.  "Ohio," 
"  Pursuit"  and  "North  Carolina"  ;  disch.  Feb.  24,  '62,  from  receiv- 
ingship,  New  York  city.  P.  O.  ad.,  Chicopee,  Mass. 

Dinsmore,  Sanford.  b.  Colebrook;  age  21;  res.  Colebrook;  enl. 
Jan.  28,  '63,  for  1  yr.,  as  a  Landsman;  served  on  U.  S.  S.  "North 
Carolina,"  "Colorado,"  "  Genessee,"  "Potomac,"  and  "Night 
ingale;"  disch.  June  16,  '64,  from  receiving  ship,  Boston,  Mass., 
tm.  ex.  P.  O.  ad.,  Bulwer,  Can. 

Foster,  Charles  E.  b.  Dover;  age  "21";  res.  Dover;  enl.  July  3, 
'61,  at  Portsmouth,  for  3  yrs.,  as  a  Seaman;  served  on  U.  S.  S. 
"North  Carolina"  ;  des.  Nov.  4,  '61,  from  hosp.,  New  York  city. 

Sampson,  John  C.  b.  Dover;  age  21;  res.  Rochester;  enl.  May 
4,  '61,  at  Boston,  Mass.,  for  lyr.,  as  a  Landsman;  served  on  U.  S.  S. 
"Ohio,"  " Bainbridge,"  and  "  R.  R.  Cuyler ;"  disch.  June  19,  '62, 
from  "R.  R.  Cuyler,"  tm.  ex. 


OTHER  ORGANIZATIONS.  133 

Twombly,  Joseph  B.  b.  Rochester;  age  23;  cred.  Rochester;  enl. 
Sept.  1, '64,  for  3  yrs.,  as  an  Ord.  Seaman;  served  on  U.  S.  S. 
"Vandalia,"  "Winona,"  and  "Potomska;  "  disch.,  reduction  naval 
force,  July  17,  '65,  from  receiving  ship,  Norfolk,  Ya.  P.  O.  ad., 
Rochester. 

U.   S.  MARINE  CORPS. 

Webster,  Edson  H.,  alias  Edwin  Webster,  b.  Chittenden  county, 
Vt. ;  age  19;  res.  Nashua;  enl.  Aug.  22,  '59,  at  Boston,  Mass.,  for 
4  yrs.,  as  Priv. ;  served  on  U.  S.  S.  "Cumberland"  and  "Mack 
inaw  "  ;  disch.  disab.  Sept.  5,  '64,  Norfolk,  Va.  P.  O.  ad.,  Nashua. 

STATE  SERVICE. 

Adams,  Sylvanus.  Milford  Volunteers;  b.  New  London;  res.  Mil- 
ford  ;  enl.  Apr.  25,  '61,  as  Muse.;  paid  to  July  12,  '61,  as  of  Capt. 
George  H.  Gillis's  Co.  P.  O.  ad.,  Rumney. 

Austin,  Wanton  J.  Capt.  James  Davidson's  Co.;  b.  Providence, 
R.  I.;  age  24;  res.  Somersworth;  enl.  July  26,  '61,  as  Priv.;  paid 
to  May  14,  '62.  See  Unattached  Co.,  N.  H.  V. 

Avery,  Alfred  A.  Laconia  Volunteers ;  b.  Gilford;  age  "44";  res. 
Laconia;  enl.  May  3,  '61,  as  Priv. ;  disch.,  old  age,  May  17,  '61. 

Ayer,  James  C.  Granite  State  Guards;  b.  Deerfield;  age  "37"; 
res.  Somersworth;  enl.  Apr.  25,  '61,  as  Priv.;  disch.  July  12,  '61; 
paid  as  Corp.  of  Capt.  James  Davidson's  Co.,  July  13,  '61,  to  Mar. 
31, '62;  paid  as  Sergt.  to  May  14,  '62.  P.  O.  ad.,  Somersworth. 
See  Unattached  Co.,  N.  H.  V. 

Beard,  Cleveland  C.  Lancaster  Volunteers;  b.  Mason,  age  18;  res. 
Northumberland;  enl.  Apr.  27,  '61,  as  Priv.  No  further  record. 
P.  O.  ad.,  Reed's  Ferry. 

Bennett,  Alden  B.  Capt.  James  Davidson's  Co.;  b.  Dunstable; 
age  42;  res.  Milford;  enl.  July  30,  '61,  as  Muse.;  disch.,  by  order 
of  Governor,  Mar.  10,  '62.  See  1  N.  H.  V.,  and  Miscell.  Organiza 
tions. 

Bickford,  Orion  W.  Capt.  James  Davidson's  Co.;  b.  Lebanon, 
Me.,  age  43;  res.  Somersworth;  enl.  Oct.  2,  '61,  as  Priv.;  paid  to 
May  14,  '62.  Died  June  10,  '94,  Boston,  Mass.  See  1  Co.,  N.  H.  H. 
Art.,  and  Unattached  Co.,  N.  H.  V. 

Boudle,  John.  Lancaster  Volunteers;  b.  England;  age  36;  res. 
Stark;  enl.  May  2, '61,  as  Priv. ;  disch.  disab.  May  15,  '61,  Ports 
mouth. 

Burns,  Benjamin  A.  b.  Bingham,  Me.;  age  39;  res.  Bennington; 
enl.  May  1,  '61,  by  Ephraim  Weston,  as  Priv.  No  further  record. 
P.  O.  ad.,  West  Hopkinton. 

2 


134  SERVICE  OF  MEMBERS  IN 

Chapman,  Henry  N.  Littleton  Volunteers;  b.  Haverhill;  age  22; 
res.  Haverhill;  enl.  May  1,  '61,  as  Priv;  disch.  disab.  May  17,  '61. 

Chase,  George  A.  b.  Newport;  age  18;  res.  Newport;  enl.  Apr. 
18,  '61,  by  Ira  McL.  Barton,  as  Priv.;  served  7  days.  P.  O.  ad., 
Lowell,  Mass.  See  1  N.  H.  H.  Art. 

Chisholm,  Thomas  Melville.  Granite  State  Guards ;  b.  Boston, 
Mass.;  age  24;  res.  Somersworth ;  enl.  Apr.  29, '61,  as  Priv. ;  disch. 
July  12,  '61,  as  of  Capt.  George  H.  Gillis's  Co.,  Ft.  Constitution; 
re-enl.  July  13,  '61,  in  Capt.  James  Davidson's  Co. ;  paid  as  Sergt. 
to  May  14,  '62.  See  Unattached  Co.,  N.  H.  V.,  and  U.  S.  C.  T. 

Cleaves,  George  P.  Capt.  James  Davidson's  Co.;  b.  Kennebunk, 
Me.;  age  17;  res.  Somersworth;  enl.  July  26,  '61,  as  Priv.;  paid 
to  May  14,  '62.  See  Unattached  Co.,  1ST.  H.  V. 

Drew,  George  H.  Milford  Volunteers;  b.  Methuen,  Mass.;  res. 
Milford;  enl.  Apr.  25,  '61,  as  Priv.;  elected  Sergt.  of  Capt.  George 
H.  Gillis's  Co.  on  or  about  June  12,  '61;  disch.  July  12,  '61. 
P.  O.  ad.,  Nashua. 

Pinney,  William  G.  Keene  Volunteers;  b.  Whiting,  Vt.;  age  19  ; 
enl.  Apr.  29,  '61,  as  Priv.  No  further  record. 

Gilson,  Alonzo.  Capt.  Josiah  G.  Hadley's  Co.;  paid  for  2%  days' 
service  at  Ft.  Constitution  between  Apr.  29  and  May  9,  '61. 

Hale,  Thomas,  b.  Newbury,  Mass. ;  age  53;  res.  Laconia;  enl.  May 
4,  '61,  as  Muse.;  disch.  July  12,  '61,  as  of  Capt.  George  H.  Gillis's 
Co.,  Ft.  Constitution.  See  4  N.  H.  V.,  Unattached  Co.,  N.  H.  V., 
and  Miscell.  Organizations. 

Hall,  Charles  F.  b.  Milton;  age  18;  res.  Dover;  enl.  Apr.  29,  '61, 
by  George  W.  Colbath  as  Priv. ;  re-enl.  May  10,  '61,  for  3  yrs.,  in 
Dover  Vols. ;  disch.  disab.  May  31,  '61.  P.  O.  ad.,  Dover. 

Haradon,  Willard  N.  Manchester  Mechanics'  Phalanx;  b.  New 
Boston;  age  40;  res.  Manchester;  enl.  Apr.  25,  '61,  as  1  Lt.; 
elected  1  Lt.  Jonathan  R.  Bagley's  Co.  on  or  about  June  12,  '61; 
paid  as  1  Lt.  to  July  12,  '61. 

Hodge,  Joseph  K.  Lancaster  Volunteers;  b.  Lisbon;  age  19;  res. 
Lancaster;  enl.  Apr.  29,  '61,  as  Priv.  No  further  record.  See  2 
U.  S.  S.  S. 

Hutchinson,  Asa  S.  Manchester  Mechanics'  Phalanx;  b.  St.  John, 
N.  B.;  age  26;  res.  Manchester;  enl.  Apr.  24,  '61,  as  Priv.;  elected 
1  Sergt.  of  Capt.  Jonathan  R.  Bagley's  Co.  on  or  about  June  12,  '61; 
paid  as  1  Sergt.  to  July  12,  '61;  enl.  as  1  Sergt.  in  Capt.  James 
Davidson's  Co.  July  13,  '61;  paid  as  1  Sergt.  to  May  14,  '62.  See 
Unattached  Co.,  N.  H.  V. 


OTHER  ORGANIZATIONS.  135 

James,  Jabez  S.  Capt.  James  Davidson's  Co. ;  b.  Seabrook;  age  27; 
res.  Salisbury,  Mass. ;  enl.  Oct.  7,  '61,  as  Priv. ;  paid  to  May  14,  '62. 
See  Unattached  Co.,  N.  H.  Y. 

Joy,  Charles  H.  Capt.  James  Davidson's  Co.;  b.  Somersworth;  age 
19;  res.  South  Berwick,  Me. ;  enl.  Jan.  1, '62,  as  Priv.;  paid  to 
May  14,  '62.  P.  O.  ad.,  Mendocino,  Cal.  See  Unattached  Co., 
N.  H.  V. 


•  • . 


Keyser,  Scott  W.     Littleton  Volunteers;  b.  Haverhill;    age   "21 
res.  Haverhill;  enl.  Apr.  22,  '61,  as  Priv.;  disch.  disab.  May  J.6,  '61, 
Portsmouth.     P.  O.  ad.,  Haverhill. 

Knight,  Charles  H.  Cheshire  Light  Guards;  b.  Keene;  age  22;  res. 
Keene;  enl.  Apr.  25,  '61,  as  Priv.;  re-enl.  May  22,  '61, for  3  yrs.  No 
further  record.  P.  O.  ad.,  Springfield,  Mass. 

Norris,  Cyrus  B.  Capt.  James  Davidson's  Co.:  b.  Upper  Gilman- 
ton;  age  23;  res.  Manchester;  enl.  Apr.  21,  '62,  for  3  yrs.  as  Corp.; 
paid  to  May  14,  '62.  P.  O.  ad.,  Belmont.  See  Unattached  Co., 
N.  H.  Y. 

Ober,  Evert.  Milford  Yolunteers;  b.  Johnson,  Yt. ;  res.  New  Bos 
ton;  enl.  May  7,  '61,  as  Priv.;  disch.,  by  Capt.,  June  10,  '61;  re- 
enl.  Oct  7,  '61,  as  Priv.,  in  Capt.  James  Davidson's  Co.;  paid  to 
May  14,  '62.  See  Unattached  Co.,  N.  H.  Y. 

Osgood,  Napoleon  B.  Claremont  Yolunteers;  b.  Porter,  Me.;  age 
21;  res.  Charlestown;  enl.  Apr.  29,  '61,  as  Priv.;  re-enl.  May  21, 
'61,  for  3  yrs.;  disch.,  by  Capt.,  June  11,  '61.  P.  O.  ad.  Biddeford, 
Me. 

O'Reilly,  Francis.  Capt.  James  Davidson's  Co.;  b.  Canterbury; 
age  23;  res.  Canterbury;  enl.  Apr.  17,  '62,  for  3  yrs.,  as  Priv.;  paid 
to  May  14,  '62.  See  Unattached  Co.,  N.  H.  Y. 

Perham,  Rodney.  Milford  Yolunteers;  b.  Lyndeborough ;  res. 
Wilton;  enl.  Apr.  25,  '61,  as  Priv.;  disch.  July  13,  '61,  as  of  Capt. 
George  H.  Gillis's  Co.;  paid  as  Priv.  of  Capt.  James  H.  David 
son's  Co.,  Oct.  5,  '61,  to  May  14,  '62.  P.  O.  ad.,  Wilton.  See 
Unattached  Co.,  N.  H.  Y. 

Robinson,  John  W.  Capt.  James  Davidson's  Co.;  b.  Stratham; 
res.  Somereworth ;  enl.  Jan.  1,  '62,  as  Priv.;  paid  as  Priv.  to  March 
31,  '62;  paid  as  Corp.  to  May  14,  '62.  See  Unattached  Co.,  N.  H.  Y. 

Sargent,  Henry  O.  Capt.  James  Davidson's  Co.;  b.  Concord;  res. 
Manchester;  enl.  Aug.  19,  '61,  as  Priv.;  app.  Sergt.  Oct.  5,  '61; 
paid  to  May  14,  '62.  P.  O.  ad.,  West  Wilton.  See  Unattached  Co., 
N.  H.  Y. 

Simpson,  Henry  H.  Capt.  James  Davidson's  Co.;  enl.  Jan.  1.  '62, 
as  Priv. ;  paid  to  May  14,  '62.  See  Unattached  Co.,  N".  H.  Y. 


136  SERVICE  IN  OTHER  ORGANIZATIONS. 

Stewart,  Jonathan  S.  Concord  Volunteers;  b.  Wilmington,  Mass. ; 
age  20;  res.  Holderness;  enl.  Apr.  22,  '61,  as  Priv. ;  paid  to  July  12, 
'61,  as  of  Capt.  Jonathan  R.  Bagley's  Co.;  re-enl.  July  13,  '61,  as 
Priv.  in  Capt.  James  Davidson's  Co.;  paid  to  May  14,  '62.  P.  O. 
ad.,  Nat.  Home,  Wis.  See  Unattached  Co.,  N.  H.  Y. 

Wallace,  Joseph  H.  b.  Manchester;  age  21;  res.  Manchester;  enl. 
Apr.  19,  '61,  by  John  L.  Kelly  as  Priv.;  served  8  days.  See  3 
N.  H.  Y. 


GENERAL  ORDER 

TRANSFERRING 

MEMBERS   OF   NINTH   REGIMENT 

TO 

SIXTH  REGIMENT,  N,  H,  VET,  VOLUNTEERS, 


HEAD-QUARTERS  DISTRICT  OF   ALEXANDRIA   AND  NINTH 
ARMY  CORPS. 

ALEXANDRIA,  VA.,  June  1,  1865. 
SPECIAL  ORDERS,  No.  31. 

[EXTRACT.] 

1.  The  following  named  enlisted  men,  belonging  to  the  Ninth  Regi 
ment,  New  Hampshire  Volunteers,  which  organization  is  about  to  be 
mustered  out  of  the  service,  pursuant  to  instructions  from  the  Wai- 
Department,  dated  17th  and  18th  of  May,  1865,  promulgated  in  Par.  2, 
S.  O.,  No.  22,  c.  s.,  from  these  head-quarters,  and  whose  terms  of  ser 
vice  do  not  expire  under  the  provisions  of  said  orders,  are  hereby 
transferred  to  the  Sixth  Regiment,  New  Hampshire  Veteran  Volun 
teers. 

The  commanding  officer  Ninth  Regiment,  New  Hampshire  Volun 
teers,  will  at  once  turn  over  these  men  to  the  commanding  officer  Sixth 
Regiment,  New  Hampshire  Veteran  Volunteers,  together  with  the 
proper  muster  and  descriptive  rolls,  and  accounts  of  pay  and  clothing, 
as  required  by  Circular  No.  64,  series  of  1864,  from  the  War  Depart 
ment: 

COMPANY  A.  Privates. 

Bohonan,  Charles 
Bonaparte.  Frederick 

Williams,  John.  Bransman,  Anley 

Brown,  John 

Canfield,  Stone 
Musician.  .       '     . 

Cawley,  Peter 

Dodd,  Martin  Conception,  Joseph 


138 


GENERAL  ORDER  TRANSFERRING  TO 


Dolan,  James 
Dorway,  John 
Foster,  Thomas 
Geany,  John 
Heath,  Nelson 
Hoi  comb,  Edgar 
Marble,  Win.  H. 
Martins,  Andrew 
McCaffrey,  Samuel 
Muary,  James 
O'Donnell,  Michael 
Preston,  James  R. 
Prial,  Edward 
Raymond,  Wm. 
Rever,  Joseph 
Spencer,  John 
Woolsley,  James 
Williams,  Jonas 

COMPANY  B. 
Privates. 

Brindamour,  Albert 
Brown,  Thomas 
Bartlett,  James  H. 
Burns,  Benj.  A. 
Brady,  Edward 
Bowman,  Thomas 
Coyne,  Joseph 
Eaton,  George  W. 
Fullford,  Milo 
Fagan,  Michael 
Gregory,  John 
Grant,  Daniel 
Rowland,  Richardson 
Hobson,  Edgar  J. 
Hiltpald,  Rudolph 
Hutchinson,  Stephen  C. 
Page,  Nathaniel  S. 
Robinson,  John 
Vezina,  Octave 
Wallace,  Wm.,  2d 
Ward,  Lewis  K. 
Waldron,  George 
Williams,  John 


COMPANY  C. 

Privates. 

Bridges,  John 
Brown,  Orrin  E. 
Bowen,  Fred 
Davis,  Bailey 
Drake,  Samuel 
Duchand,  John  B. 
Foell,  Albert 
Fuller,  John  G.  C. 
Hutchinson,  Wm. 
Johnson,  Charles 
Miller,  John 
Perkins,  Albert  A. 
Rourke,  Patrick 
Riley,  Michael 
Rider,  Henry 
Raymond,  Wm. 
Sprague,  Wm. 
Tibbetts,  Enoch 
Worster,  Albanois 
Wichsel,  John 
Williams,  John 

COMPANY  D. 

»     Corporals. 

Johnson,  Henry 
Mclntyre,  Wm.  C. 
White,  Henry 

Privates. 

Allen,  John 
Bennett,  James  A. 
Bennett,  James 
Bouchier,  Peter 
Bragg,  Edwin 
Carr,  Richard 
Dodge,  Rodney 
Crossen,  Frank 
Hill,  Henry 
Hagerty,  Anthony 
Mahoney,  John 


SIXTH  N.  H.  VET.  VOLUNTEERS. 


139 


Mason,  Elisha  L. 
Nolan,  Patrick 
Politz  Reinhold 
Pringle,  Charles 
Riley,  Thomas 
Smith,  McNorman  C. 
Valentine,  James 

COMPANY  E. 

Sergeant. 
Evans,  Walter  H. 

Corporal. 
Kirwan,  Peter 

Privates. 

Allen,  Frank 
Basons,  Joseph 
Campbell,  John 
Campbell,  Henry 
Cotter,  Wm. 
Cram,  Archibald 
Cooper,  James  M. 
Clark,  Theron  G. 
Clark,  Edgar 
Daniels,  Charles  J. 
Friday,  Mitchell 
Grover,  Charles 
Goodwin,  Frank  R. 
Hamlin,  Charles  H. 
Limo,  Joaquin 
Levielle,  Victor 
Mills,  George 
Newell,  Sylvester  A. 
Ordway,  S.  F. 
Ordway,  N.  P. 
Papineau,  Francis 
Rogers,  William 
Saladal,  Leon 
Sailes,  Reuben 
Thurston,  Frank 
Triggs,  Benj. 
Vincent,  George  L. 
Vroomer,  John 


Walsh,  Patrick 
Walker,  Wm.  A. 
Webb,  Wm. 

COMPANY  F. 

Corporal. 
Broun,  Wm. 

Musician. 
Clement,  Charles  E. 

Privates. 

Anderson,  Antoine 
Boyden,  George  W. 
Barnes,  James  H. 
Brady,  Wm. 
Christenson,  Jacob 
Clarey,  Michael 
Dooley,  Thomas 
Dwyer,  Bryan 
Foster,  James 
Gero,  Henry 
Henninger,  Zephaniah 
Hogan,  Charles 
McKelvie,  Alex 
Meyer,  Ferdinandt 
Marcotte,  Zebbie 
Mill,  Joseph  G. 
Russell,  Wm. 
Shover,  John 
Smith.  Andrew  C. 
Thompson,  Francis 
Thompson,  Patrick 
Topp,  Albert 
Wilson,  John 
Wilson,  Wm.,  1st 
Wilson,  Wm.,  2d 
Wilson,  Andres 

COMPANY  G. 

Musician. 
Ritter,  Frank  S. 


140 


GENERAL  ORDER  TRANSFERRING  TO 


Privates. 

Antlitz,  John 
Augustin,  August 
Bresland,  Joseph 
Ballou,  Charles  E. 
Bright,  John 
Cook,  Thomas 
Crowther,  Wm. 
Duval,  Richard 
Ferguson,  John 
Gordon,  Francis 
Gibson,  George  W. 
Heran,  Abram 
Loren,  Peter 
Louis,  Peter 
Ryder,  Abram 
Stevens,  Thomas 
Spencer,  Thomas 
Smith,  Dexter  D. 
Shaursny,  Henry 
Thompson,  Charles 
Thompson,  John 
Wilson,  Benjamin 

COMPANY  H. 
Sergeant. 
Taylor,  Alfred 
Musician. 

Wyman,  Charles  C. 
Privates. 

Ahern,  Martin 
Bedell,  Abram 
Bedell,  Austin 
Birch,  George 
Brooks,  John  C. 
Brush,  John 
Boyle,  William 
Burke,  Thomas 
Carter,  John 
Carr,  George 
Cummings,  George 
Clark,  Portus  B. 


Deerin,  Peter 
English,  James 
Frate,  Carlo 
Fromow,  George 
Griggs,  Alvin 
Granville,  Francis 
Holmes,  Ephraim  E. 
Hayes,  Augustus 
Lindsey,  Albert 
Lucas,  Harvey  H. 
Lapoine,  Henry 
Pratt,  Alfred  C. 
Rogers,  Charles  E. 
Stillings,  Alonzo 
Sullivan,  Thomas  C. 
Sherwood,  William 
Schealala,  John 
Taylor,  Alfred 
Ure,  Daniel 
Varine,  Augustus 
Wilkins,  William  H. 

COMPANY  I. 

Privates. 
Allen,  George  W. 
Becker,  Jacob 
Blake,  Aaron  H. 
Bundy,  Alvin  A. 
Colburn,  Eleazer 
Cram,  Albert 
Crouch,  Charles  E. 
Duprez,  Louis 
Ellis,  John  E. 
Estey,  Lyman  E. 
French,  Stephen  S. 
Hall,  George 
Johnson,  George 
Leonard,  Thomas 
Lowe,  George 
Lowe,  Henry 
Miller,  John 
Otto,  Gustave 
Schaeffer,  Fred 
Smith,  Geo.  W. 
Sweat,  Charles,  Jr. 
Wheeler,  Albion 
Whittle,  James  C. 


SIXTH  N.  H.  VET.  VOLUNTEERS. 


141 


COMPANY  K. 

Sergeant. 
James,  John 

Corporals. 

Gay,  Proctor 
Sargent,  Frank  B. 

Musician. 
Varney,  Orin 
Privates. 

Berry,  William  H. 
Benedict,  Mitchel 
Blake,  Jonathan 
Bryan,  James 
Cram,  William  H. 
Eagan,  William  G. 
Gardiner,  James 
Gonsalavre,  Francis 
Hicks,  Calvin 
Johnson,  George 


Johnson,  Arthur  M. 
Kuhlmann,  William 
Larey,  John 
Leeds,  William  C. 
Lamare,  Joseph 
Lafan,  Joseph 
McWoughton,  Duncan 
McMurphy,  James 
Mendon,  George  E. 
McGowan,  John 
Mills,  Oscar  A. 
Neson,  John 
Olson,  Peter 
Osterly,  Herman 
Parsons,  Flores  E. 
Russell,  George 
Roberts,  Auguste 
Rorke,  Daniel 
Ross,  Peter 
Roquet,  Peters 
Smith,  Peter 
Sullivan,  John 
Varney,  Edwin  C. 
Wesley,  John 
Wilson,  James  H. 
West,  Royal  F. 


By  command  of 

Maj.  Gen.  JNO.  G.  PABKE: 

JNO.  D.  BERTOLETTE. 

Assistant  Adjutant  General. 


OFFICIAL: 


JNO.  C.  YOUNGMAN, 

Assistant  Adjutant  General. 


REGISTER 

OF 

COMMISSIONED     OFFICERS, 

NINTH   REGIMENT. 


COLONELS. 

Fellows,  Enoch  Q.  ;  Titus,  Herbert  B. 

LIEUTENANT-COLONELS. 

Stevens,  Josiah,  Jr.  (not  mustered)  ;  Titus,  Herbert  B.  ; 
Babbitt,  John  W.  ;  Chandler,  George  H.  (not  mustered). 

MAJORS. 

Titus,  Herbert  B.  ;  Everett,  George  W.  ;  Chandler,  George  H. 

ADJUTANTS. 

Cook,  William  N.  ;  Chandler,  George  H.  ;  Brown,  William  I.  ; 
Robinson,  Oscar  D. 

QUARTERMASTERS. 

Hutchins,  Carleton  B.  ;  Moses,  William  Pitt. 

SURGEONS. 

Webster,  William  A.  ;  Gibson,  Francis  N. 

ASSISTANT  SURGEONS. 

Emerson,  John  S.  ;  Gibson,  Francis  N. 

CHAPLAIN. 

Gushee,  Edward  M. 

CAPTAINS. 

Pillsbury,  Leonard  H.,  Little,  Ludo  B.,  Co.  A;  Alexander, 
Samuel  J.,  Smith,  Orville,  Co.  B;  Quimby,  H.  Baxter 
(not  mustered)  ;  Edgerly,  Augustus  S.,  Copp,  Charles  D., 


REGISTER  OF  COMMISSIONED  OFFICERS.        143 

Co.  C;  Stevens,  Chester  C.,  Hutchinson,  Asa  T.,  Co.  D; 
Buswell,  Daniel  C.,  Robinson,  Oscar  D.,  Co.  E;  Stone, 
Andrew  J.,  Case,  Ervin  T.,  Co.  F;  Whitneld,  Smith  A., 
Babb,  Edward  C.,  Co.  G;  Edgerly,  Charles  W.,  Blaisdell, 
James,  Allen,  Benjamin  R.,  Co.  H;  Babbitt,  John  W., 
Hough,  Andrew  J.,  Co.  I;  Cooper,  John  B.,  Co.  K. 

FIRST    LIEUTENANTS. 

Pillsbury,  William  S.,  Newcomb,  Oliver  P.,  Little,  Ludo  B., 
Emery,  George  W.,  Simons,  Charles  J.,  Co.  A;  Hara- 
don,  Willard  N.,  Brown,  William  I.,  Qnimby,  H.  Baxter, 
Co.  B;  Tilton,  Charles  W.,  Copp,  Charles  D.,  Kelly, 
Jerome,  Co.  C;  Hough,  Andrew  J.,  Mason,  John  E.r 
Thompson,  John,  Co.  D;  Hutchinson,  Asa  T.,  Harudeur 
Charles  A.,  Sampson,  John  C.,  Robinson,  Oscar  D.,  Co.  E  j 
Moses,  William  Pitt,  Sprague,  S.  Henry,  Babb,  Edward  C., 
Co.  F;  Smith,  Orville,  Perry,  S.  Horace,  Hall,  Stacy  W.r 
Co.  G;  Lewis,  John  G.,  Blaisdell,  James,  Greene,  Edwin, 
Co.  H  ;  Green,  Jacob,  Cheney,  David  F.,  Richards,  Charles 
J.,  Co.  I;  Case,  Ervin  T.,  Allen,  Benjamin  R.,  Burnham, 
Franklin  J.,  Co.  K. 

SECOND  LIEUTENANTS. 

Newcomb,  Oliver  P.,  Mooney,  John,  Sargent,  Henry  O.,  Drewr 
George  H.,  Co.  A;  Chisholm,  Thomas  Melville,  Rolfe, 
Horace  H.,  Sampson,  John  C.,  Hubbard,  Henry  E.,  Co. 
B;  Copp,  Charles  D.,  Cheney,  David  F.,  Co.  C;  Merrill, 
Albert  G.,  Co.  D;  Emery,  George  W.,  Cos.  H  and  D; 
Donovan,  John,  Co.  D;  Edminster,  James  N.,  Quimby, 
H.  Baxter,  Robinson,  Oscar  D.,  Co.  E;  Burnham,  Frank 
lin  J.  (not  mustered)  ;  Mason,  John  E.,  Little,  Ludo  B.,, 
Wilcox,  Charles  VY.,  Co.  F;  Harnden,  Charles  A.,  Perry, 
S.  Horace,  Rice,  William  D.,  Co.  G ;  Hall,  Stacy  W.  (not 
mustered)  ;  Blaisdell,  James,  Babb,  Edward  C.,  Harlow, 
Isaac  Leonard,  Co.  H  ;  Sawyer,  Nelson  N.,  Greene,  Edwin,. 
Sylvester,  George  P.,  Co.  I ;  Kelly,  Jerome  (not  mustered), 
Brown,  William  I.,  Allen,  Benjamin  R.,  Co.  K;  Simons,, 
Charles  J.  (not  mustered) . 


THE  NINTH  NEW  HAMPSHIRE  VOLUNTEERS 
VETERAN   ASSOCIATION. 


On  the  second  day  of  the  first  encampment  of  the  New  Hamp 
shire  veterans  at  Manchester,  October  13,  1875,  the  Ninth  New 
Hampshire  volunteers  had  representatives  in  the  line  as  formed 
for  review.  Lieut.  Col.  J.  W.  Babbitt  commanded,  and  Lieut. 
Charles  J.  Richards  acted  as  adjutant.  At  the  same  encamp 
ment  a  Regimental  association  was  organized,  with  Capt.  J.  B. 
Cooper  president,  and  Capt.  C.  D.  Copp  secretary.  The  asso 
ciation  thus  formed  has  continued  to  the  present,  and  now  owns, 
in  partnership  with  the  Eleventh  association,  a  commodious, 
attractive,  and  well  appointed  head-quarters  building  at  The 
Weirs,  erected  in  1888  at  an  expense  of  $2,500.  The  build 
ing  was  dedicated  that  same  year,  Hon.  Win.  E.  Chandler 
delivering  the  dedicatory  address. 

In  1891  the  late  Lieut.  John  E.  Mason  acted  as  secretary, 
and  as  such  of  course  had  charge  of  the  record  book,  which, 
after  his  decease  in  October  of  that  year,  was  mislaid,  and  not 
withstanding  a  persistent  search  by  his  executor,  Hon.  Henry 
M.  Baker,  has  never  been  found.  Consequently  a  complete  list 
of  the  officers  of  the  association  cannot  now  be  given,  but  some 
facts  are  known  and  well  remembered  : 

At  the  state  encampment  at  The  Weirs,  August  13-15, 
1878,  the  veterans  of  the  Ninth  met  near  the  "big  black 
rock"  in  the  rear  of  the  original  camp-ground,  and  chose 
Maj.  George  H.  Chandler  president,  and  Capt.  William  Pitt 
Moses  secretary.  While  this  meeting  was  in  progress  Gen. 
A.  E.  Burnside  passed  by,  and  was  heartily  greeted  by  his  for 
mer  subordinates  and  then  comrades.  In  1884,  Capt.  C.  D. 
Copp  was  president.  In  1885  the  following  officers  were 
elected:  Col.  H.  B.Titus,  president;  Lieut.  C.  J.  Richards, 
vice-president ;  Lieut.  J.  E.  Mason,  secretary ;  Lieut.  Col. 
J.  W.  Babbitt,  necrologist;  Lieut.  J.  E.  Mason,  Capt.  C.  D. 


NINTH  N.  H.  V.  VETERAN  ASSOCIATION.        145 

Copp,  and  Capt.  J.  B.  Cooper,  monographists.  In  1887  the  list 
was, — Lieut.  C.  W.  Wilcox,  president;  J.  F.  Foster,  vice-presi 
dent  ;  Lieut.  J.  E.  Mason,  secretary ;  Lieut.  Col.  J.  W.  Babbitt, 
necrologist.  In  1889,  Capt.  C.  D.  Copp  was  president ;  Corp. 
L.  R.  Mayo,  vice-president ;  Capt.  J.  B.  Cooper,  treasurer ;  and 
the  Ninth  and  Eleventh  voted  to  hold  a  joint  celebration  of  the 
twenty-fifth  anniversary  of  their  mustering  out.  In  1890,  Capt. 
E.  C.  Babb  was  president,  and  in  1891,  Capt.  O.  D.  Robinson 
was  elected  to  the  same  office. 

Since  1891  the  officers  have  been, — 

1892— Rev.  N.  T.  Button,  president;  A.  Paul  Home,  vice- 
president  ;  Capt.  William  Pitt  Moses,  secretary  and  treasurer ; 
Dr.  G.  L.  Wakefield,  necrologist;  member  of  executive  com 
mittee  for  State  association,  Capt.  B.  R.  Allen.  At  that  meet 
ing  the  following  resolutions  were  passed  in  recognition  of  the 
unusually  efficient  services  of  Dr.  George  L.  Wakefield  as  the 
association's  necrologist : 

WHEREAS,  Our  comrade  and  efficient  necrologist,  Dr.  George  L. 
Wakefield,  has  rendered  a  most  valuable  service  in  collecting  and 
tabulating  facts  pertaining  to  the  deceased  members  of  the  Ninth 
New  Hampshire  volunteers,  and  has  presented  to  this  association 
a  specially  prepared  and  beautifully  bound  volume  in  which  it  is 
intended  to  place  a  complete  summary  record  of  every  member  of 
our  dear  old  regiment,  and 

WHEREAS,  The  work  of  inscribing  in  this  book  the  names  of  the 
members  of  the  regiment,  and  the  individual  records  of  those  deceased, 
so  far  as  ascertained  to  this  date,  has  been  beautifully  done  by  our 
comrade's  daughter,  Miss  Electa  Wakefield,  therefore, 

Resolved,  That  the  cordial  thanks  of  this  association  be  and  hereby 
are  tendered  to  Comrade  Wakefield  for  the  painstaking  labor  per 
formed  and  the  generous  expenditure  incurred  in  its  behalf;  and  also 
to  his  daughter,  Miss  Electa,  for  her  careful  and  laborious  work  in 
transcribing  into  this  book  said  names  and  records. 

Resolved,  That  Miss  Electa  Wakefield  be  adopted  as  a  Daughter  of 
the  Regiment,  and  she  is  hereby  invited  to  meet  with  this  association 
at  its  annual  reunions ;  and 

Resolved,  That  the  foregoing  be  entered  in  full  upon  the  records  of 
the  association,  and  that  an  engrossed  copy  thereof  be  presented  to 
Comrade  Wakefield,  and  also  to  his  daughter,  Miss  Electa  Wakefield. 

1893— A.  Paul  Home,  president;  Dr.  G.  L.  Wakefield,  vice- 
president;  Capt.  W.  P.  Moses,  secretary  and  treasurer;  Dr. 


146       NINTH  N.  H.  V.  VETERAN  ASSOCIATION. 

G.  L.  Wakefield,  necrologist ;  member  of  executive  committee, 
Sergt.  O.  B.  Warren. 

1894 — Dr.  G.  L.  Wakefield,  president;  George  J.  Allen,  vice- 
president;  Capt.  W.  P.  Moses,  secretary  and  treasurer;  Dr. 
G.  L.  Wakefield,  necrologist;  Corp.  L.  R.  Mayo,  member  of 
executive  committee. 

1895 — Henry  Clark,  president;  O.  B.  Warren,  vice-presi 
dent  ;  W.  P.  Moses,  secretary  and  necrologist ;  A.  H.  Davis, 
janitor;  Dr.  G.  L.  Wakefield,  surgeon. 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS. 


FACING  PAGE 

Aldrich,  James  H 655 

Aldrich,  Corp.  Lewis  W.         ......  366 

Allen,  George  J 318 

Ayer,  James  C.                                                      ...  400 

Babb,  Capt.  Edward  C.                                                           .  386 

Babbitt,  Lieut.  Col.  John  W.  234 

Barnard,  George  W.       .......  684 

Blaisdell,  Charles  M.     .                             .  130 
Blaisdell,  Capt.  James  ...                   .                   .34 

Bloody  Envelope  .  .  .472 

Bohonnan,  Charles         .......  730 

Boothby,  Henry  J 666 

Bragg,  Corp.  Elmer        .......  64 

Brocklebank,  Corp.  Lewis      ......  64 

Brown,  Adjt.  William  I.                             ....  434 

Bandy,  Alvin  A.    .          .          .          .          .          .                   .  272 

Burnham,  Lieut.  Franklin  J.            .          .          .          .          .  672 

Burnside,  Gen.  Ambrose  B.  44 

Chamberlain,  N.  Bryon           .          .                   .                   .  336 

Chandler,  Maj.  George  H.     .          .          .          .          .          .  374 

Chapman,  Sergt.  Joseph  C.    .          ...          .          .          .  640 

Cheney,  Lieut.  David  F.         .          .          .          .          .          .  510 

Clark,  Henry  W .678 

Colburn,  James  L.          .......  96 

Colors  of  the  Ninth  Regiment,  N.  H.  V.                   .  560 

Connor,  Lendell  A.        .......  96 

Cooper,  Capt.  John  B.  532 

Copp,  Capt.  C.  D.          .          .          .          .          .          .          .  196 

Copp,  Lieut.  C.  D.                   ...  196 

Currier,  Andrew    ........  684 

Cushing,  Nathan 400 

Darling,  Corp.  L.  Dwight       .                   .          .                   .  528 

Davis,  Albert  H. 608 

Davis,  Albert  P .         .  176 

Davis,  Corp.  Charles  B.          ......  40 

Dodge,  Sergt.  George  H.  640 

Dutton,  Sergt.  Major  Newell  T.     .          .          .          .          .  455 


148  LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS. 

Edgerly,  Capt.  Charles  W.     .          .  .          .          .          .            34 

Ellis,  Corp.  Minot          .  304 

Ellis,  John  E.  .                   304 

Fellows,  Col.  Enoch  Q.  .    Frontispiece 

Fletcher,  Almon  J.  640 

Foster,  Edwin  F.             ...  608 

Foster,  J.  Frank    .  288 

Gray,  Benjamin      .          .          .  400 

Griffin,  Gen.  S.  G.          .  340 

Gushee,  Chaplain  Edward  M.  18 

Hale,  Harry  (Orin  Varney)    .  592 

Hall,  Sergt.  John  R.      .  .600 

Hall,  William  J 528 

Hanson,  Com.  Sergt.  Howard  M.  455,  730 

Hartwell,  Sergt.  William  H.  228 

Headquarters   Ninth  Regiment,  N.  H.  V.,  at  the  Weirs 

Appendix          144 

Heath,  Sergt.  Webster                     ....  480 

Hill,  Quartermaster  Sergt.  Charles  P.  .                                     730 

Hill,  Hospital  Steward  Sylvester  J.  455 

Home,  Corp.  Augustus  P.               .  .                                      620 

Hough,  Capt.  Andrew  J.        .          .  496 

Hurlbutt,  Corp.  Charles  O.    .  64 

Huntoon,  Phineas  R.    .  196 

Hurd,  D.  Emerson         ....  96 

Hutchins,  Quartermaster  Carleton  B.  .                                     153 

Kennard,  Frank  H.  666 

Kidder,  Roscoe  B.         .  254 

Kimball,  James  B.  684 

Knight,  Corp.  Charles  H.       .  336 

Lang,  Charles        .                             .  272 

Lathe,  Sergt.  James  W.  40 

Lathrop,  Corp.  Edward  D.     .          .  666 

Lavender,  Corp.  William  J.    .  34 

Leighton,  Byron  D.  i92 

Little,  Sergt.  Charles  H.  600 

Little,  Capt.  Ludo  B.     .  710 

Mason,  Lieut.  John  E.  196 

Mason,  Simeon  A.  272 

Matthews,  Corp.  James  H .         336 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS.  149 

Mayo,  Corp.  Lysander  R 400 

McGarrett,  Sergt.  William  A.          .....  426 

Messenger,  Edward  M.           ......  228 

Morton,  George  W.                                               .  254 

Moses,  Quartermaster  William  Pitt        .....  352 

Nagle,  Gen.  James 724 

Non-Commissioned  Staff,  Ninth  Regiment,  N.  H.  V.      .  455 

Norris,  Corp.  Cyrus  B.           ......  546 

Osgood,  Napoleon  B.     .          .  .          .  .416 

Paige,  Enoch  C .  160 

Partridge,  Sergt.  Henry  F.     .          .          .          .          .  318 

Parke,  Gen.  J.  G.            .                   .          .  548 

Perry,  Lieut.  S.  Horace                    .          .          .          .          .  208 

Perry,  William  H.           .  176 

Philips,  Minot  R.  288 

Pierce,  Joseph  W.           .....  288 

Pillsbury,  Capt.  Leonard  H.           .....  730 

Pillsbury,  Lieut.  William  S.  .  576 

Prendable,  Color-Bearer  James      .                             .  254 

Priest,  Thomas  J.           .....  192 

Quimby,  Capt.  H.  Baxter       .         .         .         .         .         472,  732 

Old  Shoes  of                            .  472 

Reno,  Gen.  J.  L. .60 

Robbins,  William  B.      .                   .  416 

Robinson,  Capt.  Oscar  D.                                   .  114 

Ross,  William  W .         .  304 

Rugg,  Quartermaster  Sergeant  Charles  E.     .  228,  455 

Runnals,  Sergt.  John  R.         ......  600 

Sampson,  Lieut.  John  C.        .                             .  608 

Sargent,  Henry  O 608 

Sawyer,  Andrew  J.                   ....  176 

Scott,  Josiah i^2 

Shepard,  A.  Warner,  M.  D.    .          .                             .  736 

Slyfield,  James 528 

Smith,  Capt.  Orville       .....                   .  366 

Sprague,  Lieut.  S.  Henry       ...  40 

Stone  Bridge,  Antietam  Creek,  1860      .          .          .  103 

Stone,  Capt.  Andrew  J.                                                 .  388 

Stearns,  Sergt.  Albert  B.  64 


150  LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS. 

Stevens,  Sergt.  Charles  S.      ......          402 

Streeter,  Corp.  Edwin  H 192 

Taft,  Corp.  Albert  H.    .          .  738 

Titus,  Col.  Herbert  B.  .          .          .          .          .  Frontispiece. 

Thurber,  Hiram    .          .          .          .          .          .  .          .          416 

Towne.  Samuel  C.  .96 

Turner,  Corp.  Frederick  F 472 

Underhill,  Charles  W.    .  .254 

Varney,  Orin.         .  .  .     See  Harry  Hale. 

Wakefield,  Sergt.  George  L.  78 

Warren,  Sergt.  Osmon  B.  .34 

Webster,  Jason  K 640 

Webster,  John  P.            ...  .                   416 

WVbster,  Surgeon  W'illiam  A.          ...  no 

Weeks,  George      ........         666 

Willson,  Corp.  George  C.  .                   318 

Wheeler,  Corp.  Albert  R.       .                             .  288 

White,  James  E.    .  528 

Whitfield,  Capt.  Smith  A.      .  752 

Whittle,  James  C.  304 

Wiley,  Edgar  F.    .          .          .          .          .          .  .          272 

Wilcox,  Lieut.  Charles  W.      .         .         .         .  .                   562 

Wood,  Corp.  Marshall  P.  318 

Young,  Sergt.  Alvin  A. .          .  176 


GENERAL  INDEX. 


Abbott,  General  .  PA^E' 

Abbott,  Ira  S 

Abbott,  Jacob       ....  *4'  'o* 

Abbott,  Orrin  S.  . 

Adams,  Sylvanus 

Aiken,  William  C.     -   .  ...    12,  643,  645,  720 

Aldrich,  James  H. 

Aldrich,  Jethro     .         '         .  »*,  6SS,  656 

Aldrich,  Lewis  W.  '  s       Q5 

Aldrich,  Lewis  W.,  2d          .'.'.'. 

Aldrich,  Mehetabel  (Moody)         .         .         '  "3 

Alexander,  Morrison    .... 

Alexander,  S.  Judson  .....' 

Allard,  Colonel 

Allen,  Addie  Florence 

Allen,  Benjamin  R       .  '         .'        .'    ,   l6>    ^       ^      6  547,657-658 

Allen,  Carrie  (Martin) 

Allen,  Colonel      . 

Allen,  D.  W.        .         .         \ 

Allen,  Dora  A.     .         .         .'         .'         '         '  ^ 

Allen,  Fred  J 

Allen,  George  J.,  ' 

Allen,  Mary  Blanche    ...'.'.'. 

Allen,  Mary  H.  (Gilmore)    ......         .'  gS 

Allen,  Minnie  Myrtle 

Allen,  Paymaster  W.  H.  H L 

Ammen,  General 


Antietam 

Applebee,  William  H.          .."..!'.!  84 

Archer,  Josiah  L 2 

Armstrong,  George  T. 

Arthur,  President 

Atwood,  Naranus          ........         .'         .ft 

Austin,  Thomas  S.  o. 


GENERAL  INDEX. 

Avery,  James        .....••••••         235 

Ayer,  James  C r5,  658-659 

Ayers,  Elisha 1S>  1S1 

Babb,  Edward  C :5 

385,  388,  435-436,  438-439,  469-470,  472»  479.  49S»  547.  563»  660-661 

Babb,  Mary  (Winslow) 660 

Babbitt,  John  W •         •  13 

14,  130,  131,  173,  179,  199.  222»  233~234-  236,  237,  244,  258,  276,  297 
313,  3i6,  330,  342,  351,  375,  381,  434,  472»  474,  494,  563,  661-663,  756 

Bailey,  Capt.  Edward  L 752 

Bailey,  John  B 57,  146,  643-654,  651 

Baltimore  Light  Artillery 452 

Band,  Regimental  and  Brigade     .         .         .         .17,    42,    57,    58,    85,110 

II9,  135,   146,  2l6,  217,  2l8,  220,  222,  223,  225,  239,  273,  307,  643-654 

Barber,  George  W.        145,  168,  176,  177,  2°3,  2I5'  23l>  235>  24O,  241,  251,  640 

Barker,  Capt.  T.  A 739 

Barnard,  Daniel  L 3l8 

Barnes,  James  H.  5<H-5O5 

Barton,  Lieutenant        ....••••••         567 

Batchelder,  Charles  W 1S 

Batchelder,  Joseph  C.  II2»  I23 

Baxter,  General 568 

Bean,  Amos  S.     .  3r3 

Bean,  Jesse  S '4,  235 

Beard,  Leonard  M 

Belcher,  Lieutenant 605 

Benham,  General  ....         696 

Benjamin's  Battery 7*.  269 

Bennett,  Alden  B 12,663-664 

Bennett,  J.  C 643,644,6; 

Berry,  Governor .         •         •         •  *7»  731 

Bingham,  Charles  F 658 

Bissell,  Albert  E 3l8 

Blackmar,  Charles  E 

Blaisdell,  Charles  H 

Blaisdell,  Charles  M •         •          664-665 

Blaisdell,  Charley 52 

Blaisdell,  James X3>  287,  435,  472 

Blaisdell,  Mary  H.  (Starr) 665 

Bliss,  Colonel J98>  548 

Blood,  George  F 235 

Blood,  Henry  P •         •         •          386-387 

Blood,  Joel  S l6'    84 

"  Bloody  Ninth  " 

Bloss,  John  M 64 

Bohonan,  Charles 649,651 

Boothby,  Henry  J 15,112,616 


GENERAL  INDEX.  153 

Bowen,  John  A.  ...........         602 

Bowers,  Lieutenant-Colonel          .  223,  646 

Bowman,  Colonel 647 

Boyle,  General 317,  353 

Bradford,  Amos  F 113 

Bradford,  Caleb  M 113 

Bradford,  Captain        .  573 

Bradford,  Ex-Governor 573 

Bradford,  Joseph  D 236 

Bragg,  Elmer 15,  145,  314,  398-399,  633,  666-667 

Bright,  John I 

Brocklebank,  Belle  (Wilbur) 667 

Brocklebank,  Daniel    . .         667 

Brocklebank,  Lewis 667 

Brocklebank,  Lois  D.  (Heath) 667 

Brown,  Abram     .         . .         .         235 

Brown,  Alba         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         -756 

Brown,  Captain 567-568 

Brown,  Colonel 198 

Brown,  Colonel    ...........         567 

Brown,  Deborah  (Ide) 667 

Brown,  Dr.  Joel   ...........         756 

Brown,  George  B.  .         .         .         . 235 

Brown,  George  H.  608 

Brown,  James  F. 526 

Brown,  John 153 

Brown,  John  S 667 

Brown,  William  Ide 14 

393,  427,  434-435.  472-473.  474~475>  493~495»  552,  667-671,  717 

Bruce,  George  0 151,  707 

Buchanan,  President 3 

Buck,  Dr.  William 749 

Buckman,  John  B .    16,    55 

Buffum,  James,  2d 235 

Bugbee,  Henry  C.  235 

Burbank,  Lieutenant 399 

Burleigh,  Charles  ..........  15 

Burnham,  Amelia  (Whitman) 671 

Burnham,  Franklin  J 77 

143,  145,  212,  227,  335,  336,  354-355.  39°-397>  428 

451,  459-464,  479-480,  490-493.  5I6-5i7.  529-53!.  547.  635,  671-675 

Burnham,  Harriet  F.  (Laughton)         .......         675 

Burnham,  James  .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         671 

Burnside,  General  ...  43,  44,  47,  48,  61,  69,  71,  76,  103 
104,  108,  109,  132,  134,  149,  150,  165,  181-192,  198,  255-257,  259,  276 
357.  34°,  342,  358,  364,  426,  427,  448,  450,  482-490,  496,  499,  646,  695 

Buswell,  Barclay  C 14 

Buswell,  Daniel  C 13,    14,  335,  434,  454,  463,  475,  685 


154  GENERAL  INDEX. 


Butler,  General     
Butler,  Wentworth        ..... 

Calder   William                     .... 

. 

474,  549.  586 
14.  435 

481 

Caldwell,  Leonard  H.           .... 
Camp  Burnside    ...... 

•      33.  348, 

.    14,  235,  271 
349.  351,  352,  355 

22,     28,     33,      51 

.       8, 

12,      IQ,      51,  643 

277,  278,  322 

Camo  Ella  BishoD 

270 

Camp  Nelson 321 

Camp  Parole 34° 

Campbell,  Duncan       ..........         430 

Canfield,  William  H 15,  464,  469 

"  Carleton  "  (C.  C.  Coffin) 461 

Carpenter,  Hamilton 460,  473 

Carroll,  Jeremiah         . 235 

Carruth,  Lieutenant-Colonel 114*  337 

Case,  ErvinT 14,348,381,434,470,506,710-711,716 

Casey,  General 20,    21 

Casler,  Capt.  B.  G 574.  584,  588 

Chace,  Mpses  L. 15 

Chamberlain,  Noel  B 280 

Chamberlin,  Charles I51 

Chandler,  Elvira  S.  (Coffin) 677 

Chandler,  George  H 10 

12,  17,  35.  37.  45.  46,  151,  1 52,  153.  236,  258,  269,  276 
297-298,  3l6>  342,  353.  372,  374,  378,  380-381,  399,  434-435.  469-475 
478,  493-495.  537,  547-549,  SS°-SSl>  555.  556,  560,  563.  676-677,  701 

Chandler,  Isaac  H 746 

Chandler,  John  K 677 

Chandler,  Kate 677 

Chandler,  Lieut.  G.  W 600 

Chandler,  Mary  A 676 

Chandler,  Nathan  S 676 

Chandler,  Timothy 745 

Chandler,  William  E 380,  676 

Chapman,  Dr.  G.  T 737 

Chapman,  Edward  P 3l8,  389 

Chapman,  Joseph  C 15.  I23 

Chapman,  Waterman  S 235 

Chase,  Aaron 146,  643,  644,  647 

Chase,  George  A 235,  678 

Chase,  Herbert  G 643,  644,  651 

Chase,  Joseph  H 235 

Chase,  Lieut.  H.  R 591 

Chase,  Lucian  H 112 


GENERAL  INDEX.  155 

Cheney,  Benjamin  P 548 

Cheney,  David  F 14,472,511 

Cheney,  Deacon  Moses 718 

Cheney,  Gov.  P.  C 718 

Cheshire  Light  Guards 739 

Chisholm,  Thomas  M 13 

Cilley,  Quartermaster 350 

Clark,  Capt.  Joseph,  Jr 114 

Clark,  Col.  William  T 114 

Clark,  Henry  W 678 

Clark,  John 616 

Clark,  Lieutenant 568 

Clark,  Lieut.  Joseph  R 153 

Clark,  Rufus  W 236 

Clark,  William  P 678 

Clement,  Hermon  A 125,  173,  235,  318,  389,  502-504,  679 

Clement,  Simeon  A 389,  679-680 

Clogston,  John  D 235 

Clough,  Larkin  H 84 

Clough,  William  F 14 

Coffin,  Samuel  S. 677 

Colburn,  Eleazer 440 

Colburn,  James  L 15 

Colby,  Adjutant-General .11,18,  731 

Colgrove,  Gen.  Silas 64 

Collins,  Rev.  S.  A 123 

Cooper,  John  B.  . 13 

14,  no,  113,  122,  234,  345,  348,  434,  462,  506,  533,  678,  680-681 

Cooper,  Mark  0 681 

Cooper,  Mary  O.  (Moody) 680 

"  Cooper  shop," 20,  558 

Copp,  Charles  D 13,    82 

197,  222,  234,  253,  274,  305,  312,  317-318,  319,  347,  378-380,  381-384 
386,  389-390,  437-438»  470-472,  474,  475,  534,  549,  55Q-551,  681-684 

Copp,  Harriet  E.  (Woods) 683 

Corser,  William  H 658 

Couch,  General 61,  695 

Cowen,  William  F 84 

Cox,  General        . 103-104 

Crafts,  Captain 319 

Crawford,  Lieutenant 567 

Cressey,  Albert  B.         .         .         .         . 15 

Cross,  Colonel 35 

Crowell,  Martin  T 684 

Culburton,  Lieut.  S.  S 659 

Cummings,  Orlando  L. 236 

Cummings,  Rev.  Dr.  E.  E.  .  657 

Currier,  Andrew 685 


156  GENERAL  INDEX. 

Curtin,  Governor          .......  97,    98,    99,    136 

Curtis,  William  B 313 

Gushing,  Nathan 684-686 

Cutler,  George  W 14 

Cutter,  Division  Surgeon 223,  225,  239,  646 

Darling,  Lewis  Dwight         .........         686 

Davidson,  Captain        .         ...         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         659 

Davis,  Alvah  R 132,  686-687,  760 

Davis,  Andrew  J 145,  235 

Davis,  Captain 609 

Davis,  George  A.          ...*.......         687 

Davis,  Jefferson 301,  544,  587 

Davis,  Mary  E.  (Thompson)         .         .         .         ."        .         .         .         .         687 

Davis,  Walter  E 687 

Day,  Charles 314 

Dearborn,  Horace  P.   .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .  15 

Dennis,  Frank      ...........         318 

Densmore  (Dinsmore),  Edgar  W 15*234,235,253 

Dexter,  Francis  H 235 

Dimmick,  Lieut.  O.  W 578 

Dinsmore,  Sanford 687-689 

Dix,  General 266,  647 

Dodge,  George  H.        .         .         . 15 

Doe,  Hezekiah 112 

Doherty,  James    .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         112 

Donovan,  John     . 15,495 

Douty,  Lieutenant 485 

Dow,  Brig.  Gen.  Neal  ..........         575 

Dow,  Rev.  Mr. 601 

Downs,  Edwin  W 203 

Drew,  George  H 15,  500,  502,  511,  599,  604 

Dudley,  Oliver  H 15 

Dufney,  Joseph 318,  381 

Duncan,  Charles  H 238,  635,  637,  638 

Dwell,  Capt.  George  W 114,453 

Duren,  Lieut.  John  A 574,  586,  588,  589,  604,  609 

Durgin,  Captain 319 

Duryea,  Lieutenant-Colonel          .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         114 

Dutton,  Newell  T 303 

314,  315,  320-321,  385-386,  398-399,  423-52  5>  427-428 
455-459»  46i,  495-499'  5">  526,  527>  528>  529>  53°>  547>  666,  689-692 

Eastman,  Albert  C 235 

Eastman,  Col.  Seth 12 

Eastman,  George  S. 15 

Eastman,  Samuel  R.     .                            14 

Eastman,  William  C 235 


GENERAL  INDEX.  157 

Edgerly,  Augustus  S 12,    13,    14,    35,  235,  375,  565 

Edgerly,  Charles  W.    .         .          13,     14,     120-122,  236-238,  242-243,  687,  748 

Edmands,  Warren  H 14.  235 

Edminister,  James  N.  .........  13 

Edwards,  Lieut.  D.  C 594 

Edwards,  Mr 461 

Eighth  Connecticut 121 

Eighth  Illinois 298 

Eighteenth  Connecticut 580 

Eighteenth  New  Hampshire 552 

Eighty-ninth  New  York .         .         188 

Eldridge,  Eben     ...........  84 

Eleventh  Connecticut  ..........          104 

Eleventh  Florida 519 

Eleventh  New  Hampshire  .        166,  191,  289,  375,  445,  473,  475,  575,  576,  578 
Ellenwood,  Horace      ..........         113 

Ellis,  Minot 235,  318,  692-693 

Ely,  Colonel 546" 

Emerson,  Edward  I.    ..........         235 

Emerson,  John  S.         ..........  12 

Emery,  George  W 15,  434,  456>  525,  528 

Eric,  King  of  Sweden 68 1 

Evans,  General     ...........  61 

Evans,  John  F.    .         .  .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         318 

Evans,  Lieut.  T.  E 604 

Evans,  Major 353 

Everett,  Ellen  Frances  (Lane)      ........         694 

Everett,  George  W.      .  10,    12,    153,    312,  316,  353,  693-694,  738 

Everett,  George  W 694 

Everett,  John  R. 694 

Ewell,  General 435,  554,  555 

Fay,  Lieutenant 578 

Fellows,  Enoch  Q 7,      8,    n,    12,    17,    20,    21,    22 

35,    36,    37,  40,  43,    47,  53>  56>  58»    7^,    7i,    74,    75,    78,     81,  105 

106,   1 10,   114,    122,   153,  171,   173,  201,  207,  208,  222,  367,  694-697,  743 

Fellows,  John       ...........         694 

Fellows,  Lucian  B. ...         318 

Fellows,  Mary  J 694 

Fellows,  Stephen 694 

Ferguson,  Lieutenant  ..........         568 

Ferrero,  General  .         .         .         .  .      114,337,341,482,484,488,549 

Persons,  James  H.  15 

Fifteenth  New  Jersey 568 

Fifth  New  Hampshire 35,    46,  319,  435»  6°4 

Fiftieth  New  York 188 

Fiftieth  Pennsylvania  ..........         568 

Fifty-eighth  Massachusetts  .........         445 


158  GENERAL  INDEX. 

Fifty-first  New  York 79,105,114 

Fifty-first  Pennsylvania         ........   79,  105,  114 

Fifty-fourth  New  York          .  577 

Fifty-ninth  New  York 568 

Fifty-second  New  York 568 

Fifty-sixth  Massachusetts  band .         558 

Fifty-third  Tennessee  . 452 

First  New  Hampshire  Berdan  sharpshooters 575 

First  New  Jersey 568 

First  New  York  dragoons .         .         .         581 

First  Ohio  Heavy  artillery 324 

First  Vermont  Heavy  artillery .         591 

First  West  Virginia  cavalry          ........         600 

Flanagan,  Edward        .         .         .         . 112 

Fletcher,  Almon  J 113,697 

Fletcher,  Samuel  W 16,  248 

Flynn,  Martin 460,  472,  477-480 

Ford,    Henry 334,  506 

Forrest,  General  ..........         578 

Fortieth  Kentucky        .........          317,  319 

Forty-eighth  Pennsylvania 56 

114,  175,  199,  218,  234,  420,  422,  423,  445,  449,  481,  485,  494,  495 

Forty-fifth  Pennsylvania 445 

Forty-ninth  Pennsylvania     .........         567 

Forty-second  New  York       .........         568 

Foster,  Charles  E 84 

Foster,  Charles  E.  172,  248 

Foster,  Franklin  H.  .         .         .         .14,  473-474,  493,  616,  617,  701 

Foster,  J.  Frank 318,  626-627,  697-698 

Fourteenth  New  York 368 

Fourteenth  New  York  Heavy  artillery         ......         541 

Fourth  New  Hampshire       .........         435 

Fourth  Vermont 599,  600 

Fowler,  Lieutenant 568 

Fox,  George  D.    .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .          113,  129 

Franklin,  General         ..........  61 

French,  Hiram  W.        . 14,  243 

French,  Moses  D.         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         112 

Frye,  General 319,  322,  323,  337,  352,  681,  704,  752 

Frye,  Isaac  F.       ...........         502 

Funk,  Captain 568 

Gage,  George  K. 280 

Gallagher,  Adjt.  J.  H 599 

Garland,  John  W 121 

Garrard,  General          .         . .         350 

Gay,  Jerome          .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         112 

George,  Carlos  C 145,  227,  633 


GENERAL  INDEX.  159 

George,  Henry  J 475 

George,  William  M. 16 

Gibson,  Francis  N 12,  242,  472 

Gibson,  George  W. 626 

Gile,  Thomas  F.,  Jr 236 

Gillespie,  Lieutenant-Colonel 236 

Gilmore  George  H 288-291 

Gilmore,  Governor .         651 

Gilmore,  Mrs. 651 

Gleason,  Abel  R. 147,  643,  644,  649,  650 

Glidden,  Charles  W 83,    84 

Goodell,  Gov.  D.  H 708 

Goodon,  Commodore 718,  719 

Goodwin,  Thomas 15 

Gordon,  George 15 

Gove,  George  W. .   15,    84 

Grant,  Gen.  U.  S 277,  287,  306,  340,  345,  357-365 

370,  37i,  435,  443.  447,  448,  496,  497,  535,  54O,  542-544,  549,  606,  6n 
Graves,  William  H.      .         .          57,  146,  353,  643,  644,  647,  648,  649,  651,  652 

Gray,  Moses  F. x5-235 

Green,  Jacob        . •    14,  113,  130,  172,  249 

Greene,  Edwin 12,  263,  337,  511 

Grierson,  Lieut.  Otto 577 

Griffin,  General 153,  198,  274 

297,  3°6,  34i,  388»  393,  399,  421,  422,  423,  428,  434,  435,  436,  444,  471 
481,  487,  489,  495,  496,  498,  522,  526,  528,  533,  548,  550,  557,  637,  704 

Griffin,  Webster 235 

Griffith,  Alexander        ..........         235 

Griswold,  Major 597,  600,  604 

Gushee,  Edward  M 12 

18,  no,  144,  200,  214,  216,  218,  247,  310,  645,  698-701 

Hackett,  Frank  B 84 

Hadley,  Daniel  G 235 

Hale,  Senator  John  P 560 

Hall,  Charles  A. 235 

Hall,  Charles  F.  . .         112 

Hall,  Col.  Daniel 22 

Hall,  George  W 84 

Hall,  Harvey  M. 649,  651 

Hall,  Stacy  W 15,  318,  547 

Halleck,  Major-General        .         .  .         .         .         .         .         .  n 

47,    48,    97,    98,  102,  132,  135,  1 60,  163,  181,  182 

Halliday,  Joseph  C .          142,  143 

Ham,  Sylvester 15 

Hamblett,  Hezekiah  P 146,  643,  644,  647 

Hamblett,  Judson  A 146,  643,  644,  647 

Hanson,  Howard  M 12,    54,  312 


160  GENERAL  INDEX. 

Haradon,  Willard  N 13 

Harlow,  Isaac  Leonard         .         .         .         .         .         .         .  495,  499,  512 

Harnden,  Charles  A.   .         .         .         .         .  .         .         .  13,  235 

Harper's  Ferry     .         . 67,    68,  153 

Harriman,  Gen.  Walter 153,  575,  576 

Harrington,  Jeremiah 235 

Harrison,  President      .........          708,  754 

Hartranft,  General       ........  114,  489,  542 

Hartwell,  William  H.  .         .         .         .         .113,  229,  495,  608,  615,  701 

Haselton,  Enoch  E 84,   85 

Hastings,  George  E.    .  84 

Hatch,  Assistant  Commissioner 607 

Hayes,  President 681,  749 

Heath,  Webster 14 

Heckman,  Brigadier-General 576 

Hedges,  Lieut.  Samuel  N 574 

Henderson,  Lieutenant         .........         602 

Herbert,  Lieutenant 568 

Herrick,  Mrs.  H.  A 666 

Hester,  Michael  ..........          113,  235 

Hickenbottom,  Lieutenant-Colonel       .         .         .         .         .         .         .         567 

Hill,  Gen.  D.  H 61,    86 

Hobson,  J.  E 649,  651 

Hodgman,  George 14 

Hood,  General 584 

Hooker,  General 47,    61,  192,  255,  752 

Home,  Adrian  L. 703 

Home,  A.  Paul 235,  478,  619-626,  702-703 

Home,  Frances  B.  (Ricker)         ........         702 

Home,  Lester  Porter  ..........         703 

Home,  Noah 702 

Home,  Theresa  A.  (Bellows) 702 

Hough,  Andrew  J 13,  222,  421,  423-427 

434>  43S»  436>  439.  469,  474,  47 S»  494,  496,  5OI>  5IO>  S"»  563>  703-705 

Hough,  Mary  E.  (Roberts) 703 

Howard,  John  H 235 

Howard,  Levi       . 706 

Howard,  William  H 113 

Howe,  Daniel  W 16 

Howe,  Francis 235 

Howe,  John 15 

Howe,  Stephen  H 146,  643,  644,  649,  650,  651 

Hoyt,  William  H.  14 

Hubbard,  George  E 113 

Hubbard,  Henry  E 16,  130,  475 

Hull,  Lieutenant 606 

Humphrey,  John  H 126 

Humphrey,  Willard  W 126 


GENERAL  INDEX. 


161 


Hunt,  P 

Huntoon,  Eli  A. 
Huntoon,  Phineas  R.   . 
Kurd,  Albert  G. 
Hurd,  Arno  E.     . 
Hurd,  D.  Emerson 
Hurd,  Ruth  M.  (Bruce) 
Hurlbutt,  Charles  O.   . 
Hurlbutt,  Elihu    . 
Hurlbutt,  Emeline  L.  (Goodell) 
Hurlbutt,  Luther  C.     . 
Hussey,  Charles  B.      . 
Hutchins,  Assistant  Surgeon 
Hutchins,  Carleton  B. 
Hutchinson,  Asa  T. 
Hutchinson,  Oliver 
Hutchinson,  Prentiss  C. 

Ingalls,  Quartermaster 


16 

318 

707 

707 

.     .    .        .        .         706-707 
707 

.      85,  214,  707-708,  744 

707 

707 

84 

15 

153 

.      12,     42,  153,  2O8 

13,  222,  226,  495,  533,  434,  549 

•     •    .         .        .        235 

.    1 6,  643,  644,  651 

439 


Jackson,  "  Stonewall  " 31,    61,172,369,675 

Jacques,  Seino 436 

James,  Benjamin  D 235 

Johnson,  A.  M 650,  651 

Johnston,  General        .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         303 

"Jokum" 126-128 

Jolley,  Joseph 113 

Jones,  Lieutenant 605 

Judkins,  Charles  M 83 

Judkins,  Joel  S 83,    84,    85 

Kean,  Dennis 236 

Kelley,  Jerome 14*  47°»  547 

Kelsey,  Edward  C 16 

Kemp,  William  A 248 

Kempton,  George  B 636 

Kendall,  Horace  G 113 

Kendall,  Lieutenant     .         . .         568 

Kent,  Colonel 658 

Keyser,  Scott  W 14 

Kidder,  Roscoe  B 385,  500 

Kimball,  James  B 708-709 

Kingsbury,  Colonel      .         .         ...         .         .         .         .         .         104 

Kingsley  (Kingsbury),  James  M.  .......         309 

Knight/Charles  H 16,  318 

Knight,  Hollis 313 

Krommeyer,  Captain 568 

Lane,  Mattie 315 


162  GENERAL  INDEX. 

Lane,  Samuel  F. 236 

Lane,  Stella 315 

Lathe,  Aaron 709 

Lathe,  Ernest  W. .  .  .  .  711 

Lathe,  Esther  (Fordyce)  .  709 

Lathe,  Freeman 433,  465,  508,  509,  709 

Lathe,  Hattie 711 

Lathe,  Hiram  S 15,  83,  84,709 

Lathe,  J.  Arthur 711 

Lathe,  James  W.  .  15,  41,  83,355,429-434,464-469,505-510,709-711 

Lathe,  Laura  (Morse) 711 

Leavitt,  Oilman 16,114 

Ledlie,  General 483,  484,  487 

Lee,  General  .  .  n,  28,  61,  63,  64,  65,  66,  68,  95-101,  136,  156 

157,  158,  165,  183,  1 86,  356,  443,  447,  449»  54°,  543>  544»  546,  606,  652 

Leighton,  Byron  D 318,  439,  440 

Lemar  (Lamare),  Joseph  .........  335 

Leverett,  Frank  J 8-  10 

Lewis,  John  G.  ....  13,  196,  226,  234,  235,  243,  687,  688 

Lincoln,  President 2 

4,  7,  66,  98,  99,148,149,150,152,153,154,159,160 

161,  162,  194,  272,  342,  357,  536,  537,  546,  596,  605,  610,  652,  685,  738 

Little,  Albert 235 

Little,  Charles  H.  . 16,114 

Little,  Hazen  Jesse 712 

Little,  Joseph 711 

Little,  Ludo  B.  .  .  .  14,226,235,427,434,454,471,475,711-712 

Little,  Mary  (Cobleigh) 711 

Little,  Mary  E.  (Shurtleff) .  712 

Little,  Rev.  Dr.  .  677 

Longstreet,  General 61,  103,  156,  192.  361 

Lothrop  (Lathrop),  Edward  D.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  15 

Lovejoy,  Frank 235 

Lovejoy,  George  H 147,  643,  644,  651 

Loving  (Loring),  George  M 236 

Lucas,  Capt.  W.  D 604 

Manley,  Capt.  J.  A 567,  574,  595,  598 

Manning,  William         ........  147,  643,  644,  647 

Mansfield,  General        ..........  61 

Marble,  Eben  M.  . 147.  643,  644 

Marsh,  Edward  K 15 

Marshal],  Frank  V 147,  643,  644,  651 

Marshall,  Nathaniel  W 146,  643,  644,  651 

Marston,  Colonel 752 

Martin,  Harvey  C 235 

Marvin,  Charles  B.       .........          113,  123 

Mason,  John  E.    .         .         .          13,  134,  156,  312,  384-385,  494,  644,  645,  713 


GENERAL  INDEX.  163 

Matthews,  Carrie  L.  (Thomas) 7H 

Matthews,  Frank  R 7H 

Matthews,  James  H 7^3~7IS 

Matthews,  John  H 7T3 

Mayo,  Lysander  R 84,  314,  221,  400-402 

McCall,  O.  M 594 

McCarthy,  John  1 718 

McClary,  William  W 236 

McClellan,  General 36>    37 

41,    48,    61,    64,    65,    67,    68,    93,    65,    96,    97,    98,    99,  100,  102 
109,  132,  134,  135,  140,  147,  148,  150,  154,  155,  158-165,  536,  695,  699 

McClure,  George  W.   .         .       . 16,113,318 

McCutcheon,  Lieut.  Edward  T 574,  605 

McDermott,  John 112 

McGarrett,  William 235,426,427,614-618,716 

McGinnis,  Lieut.  W.  A 587 

McKusick,  Asa.  A.       ..........         616 

McLaws,  General          .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .       •  .         243 

McLeod,  Mrs.  Dr 664 

Meade,  General 340,  358,  450,  482-489,  548,  549 

Meader,  Samuel  .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         114 

Menard,  Peter 235 

Merrill,  Albert  G 13 

Merrill,  John  Mooney  .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         718 

Merrill,  Joseph  G 235 

Merrill,  Rufus  M.  (see  Mooney,  John.) 

Messenger,  Edward  M .         .  113,  119,  120 

Meyers,  Lieutenant       ..........          568 

Miles,  General 67 

Miller,  Edwin  R 16,235,716-717 

Miller,  Nancy  (Paul) ,         7J6 

Miller,  Nathaniel,  Jr 716 

Miller,  Sarah  J.  (Vose) 717 

Mitchell,  B.  W 64 

Mitchell,  General 7 18 

Mobley,  Captain  ...........          584 

Mooney,  John 14,717-719 

Moore,  James  H 643,  644,  651 

Moreland,  Benaiah       . 146,643,644,649 

Morrill,  Joseph  G 14 

Morrrison,  Mr.     ...........          54$ 

Morse,  Francis     .........  643,  644,  646 

Morse,  Frederick          .         . 15,  616 

Morse,  Mrs 515 

Morton,  George  W 719-720 

Moses,  Frances  Ellen  (Blake) 722 

Moses,  Mary  S 72o 

Moses,  Theodore  B 720 


164  GENERAL  INDEX. 

Moses,  William  P.        .         .  13,  123-124,  153,  170-171,  259,  278-280,  309 

322,  323»  335.  337,  346-348,  349,  35O-351,  352~353,  55°,  572,  720-722 

Moulton,  Andrew  J 500,  501 

Moulton,  Dr.  A.  J.  .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         746 

Mudgett,  John  F 14 

Murray,  Capt.  S.  F.     .         .         . 575,  598 

Muzzey,  George  .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         112 

Myers,  Louis        ...........  14 

Nagle,  General 44,    56,    81,  109 

114,  122,  160,  198,  216,  233,  247,  272,  274,  644,  645,  648,  699,  723-729 

Neller,  John  D 616 

Newcomb,  Oliver   P.    ..........  13 

Nichols,  Joshua    ...........  84 

Nineteenth  Kentucky  ..........         353 

Nineteenth  Massachusetts 188,  567,  587 

Ninth  Corps          .         .         .         .         60,  106,  132,  165,  212,  256,  288,  336,  340 
361-365,  403-408,  444-45°,  473,  482-490,  519,  535,  541,  542,  546,  652 

Ninth  New  York 106,118,128 

Norris,  Cyrus  B.  .         .         . 15,  547 

Noyes,  Deacon  Milton          .........         123 

Noyes,  Charles  M 15,  113,  123 

O'Connor,  Timothy     ......          ....  15 

One  Hundred  Eighty-third  Pennsylvania     ......  567 

One  Hundred  Fifty-fourth  New  York           ......  574 

One  Hundred  Forty-fifth  Pennsylvania         ......  567 

One  Hundred  Third  Pennsylvania        .......  594 

One  Hundred  Twelfth  New  York 574 

One  Hundred  Twenty-second  New  York     ......  568 

O'Reilley,  Francis         ..........  113 

Osgood,  Napoleon  B 15 

Page,  Horace 15 

Page,  Horace  B.  ..........         236 

Page,  Samuel        . .         112 

Paige,  Enoch  C.  ..........         729 

Paris,  Comte  de  .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .     3,  159 

Parker,  Betsey  (Underbill) 745 

Parke,  Major-General  ..!...     257,  306,  341,  542,  548,  557 

Parker,  Lieut.  E.  B 590,  591 

Parkers,  Mr.         ...........         548 

Parsons,  Edward  S 380,384,386,455,495,496,511 

Partridge,  Henry  F 476,  477 

Patmorn  (Putnam),  Asahel .         .         236 

Patterson,  Captain 45 

Paul,  Captain        ..........          568,  571 

Paul,  Moses  N.    .  84 


GENERAL  INDEX.  165 

Peabody,  Mrs.  George  M.  (Everett)    .         ..••.-       .         .         .         .         694 

Peabody,  Warren  A 146,  643,  644 

Pearl,  Capt.  Ichabod   .         i         . 658 

Pearson,  Lieutenant-Colonel 434 

Pearsons,  Samuel  D 434,  616 

Peaslee,  George  R 113 

Peaslee,  John  A. 113 

Perham,  Rodney 15 

Perry,  James  B .         .         .         .  12 

Perry,  S.  Horace          .         .          16,  208,  256,  258,  420,  434,  472,  475,  480,  481 

Perry,  William  H 114,  132 

Pettengill,  Wyman 14,  236 

Pettingill,  Benjamin  F 235 

Phelps,  Peter  F. 14 

Phillips,  Joseph 730 

Phillips,  Judson  .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .  .         .         730 

Phillips,  Minot  R 250,  730 

Phillips,  Rufus 730 

Phillips,  Simeon  .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .  .       .         730 

Pierce,  President 301 

Pierce,  Simeon 14 

Pillsbury,  Leonard  H 12,    13,    14,    83,    85,720,730-732 

Pillsbury,  William  S 13,  720 

Pleasants,  Lieutenant-Colonel 449,  450,  484,  494 

Plummer,  Jonathan  P 400 

Pollard,  Historian         .         .         . 544,  545 

Pope,  General 37 

Porter,  Gen.  Fitz-John 61 

Potter,  Chaplain  ...........         533 

Potter,  General    ...........         114 

256,  34i,  393.  42i,  422,  446,  448,  450,  484,  487,  488,  548,  650,  652,  702 

Potter,  Phendeus  H 235,  242 

Pratt,  Maj.  J.  E 600 

Prendable,  James  B 254,379,385,511 

Prisoners  captured  May  12,  1864,  Lieutenant  Wilcox's 

original  list  of 612-613 

Provencher,  Joseph  E 400,  437 

Pulsifer,  N.  Warren 15.151,307,313,633 

Purington,  Elijah  P 112 

Putnam,  Gen.  Israel 681 

Quimby,  Aaron 694 

Quimby,  H.  Baxter      .         .          15,  1 13,  47 2,  478,  480,  526,  547,  649,  732~733 

Quimby,  James 113 

Quimby,  Moses  A.  .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         732 

Quinn,  Joseph 616 

Ramsey,  Lyman  M.      .         .         . 84 

5 


166  GENERAL  INDEX. 

Rand,  Francis  W.         .         .         .         .         .         .         .  .         .         236 

Rand,  William  H 8-  10,    16,      51 

Randlett,  Charles  J 235 

Rantone,  Hon.  R.  S. 342-344 

Rawlins,  Colonel 607 

Raymond,  Hercules  W.        .........  16 

Reason,  Willis .         .         .         .         .         113 

Reese,  Sergeant   . .         .         .         485 

Reno,  General      .         .  43,    44,    48,    56,    61,    69,    74,    76,    82,  134,  695 

Rice,  Lieutenant-Colonel 567 

Rice,  William  D 15,  525 

Richards,  Albion  K.    .........          457,  473 

Richards,  Thomas  J. 14,112 

Richardson,  Albert 617 

Richardson,  Byron        ..........         547 

Richardson,  George  W 14 

Riley,  Francis  O.          ..........  15 

Ritter,  Frank  S 415-420 

Roberts,  Alonzo  . 703 

Roberts,  Cyrus  M 14 

Roberts,  John  W 15 

Roberts,  Mary 703 

Roberts,  Millet  W 112 

Robinson,  David 733 

Robinson,  Everett 733 

Robinson,  Jennie  M.  (Rawel)       ........         735 

Robinson,  John    ....*'......  14,  235 

Robinson,  John  W.      ..........  15 

Robinson,  Mary   ...........         735 

Robinson,  Oscar  D 15,115- 

117,  128,  142,  143,  145,  151,  171,  176,  177,  179,  180,  241,  307,  325-327 
391,  396,  400,  436-437,  495,  5T7,  528>  S32,  534,  537,  547,  673,  733~735 

Robinson,  William  S.  D 733 

Robinson,  Zelpha  (Clement)         ........         733 

Rolfe,  Horace  H 15 

Rouzie,  Dr.  A.  R .         .          600,  606 

Rowe,  Lieutenant         ..........         568 

Rowell,  Joseph  S 235 

Royce,  William  H 113 

Rugg,  John  H 113 

Runnals,  John  R 547 

Russell,  George  W 113,  I23 

Russell,  William '464 

Saladal,  Leon 437 

Sampson,  John  C 15,  335,  434,  4^3-  492>  494,  5°7,  511 

Sanborn,  Abraham       . 14 

Sanborn,  Andrew  J.     .         .         .         .         .         •         •         •         •         •  T5 


GENERAL  INDEX.  167 

Sanborn,  Carroll 236 

Sargent,  Henry  0 15,  659,  735,  736 

Sargent,  Lyman    ...........         422 

Sargent,  Sophia  T.  (Heath) 735 

Sawyer,  Nelson  N 14 

Saxton,  Mr. 648 

Scanneron,  Brig.  Gen.  O.  P 575,  576 

Scofield,  General 323 

Scott,J 235 

Scoville,  Maj.  Henry  W 333,  610 

Scripture,  Gilman 548 

Second  Maryland          ...          56,  105,  114,  175,  198,  247,  445,  481,  594 
Second  New  Hampshire       ........   10,  219,  435 

Second  New  York        .........          416,  445 

Second  New  Hampshire  United  States  Sharpshooters         .         .         .         598 
Second  Vermont  United  States  Sharpshooters    .         .     '    .         .         .         598 

Seventeenth  Michigan 85,  567 

Seventeenth  Vermont  ......    445,  481,  499,  534,  650 

Seventh  Maine  battery 430,  538 

Seventh  Michigan 188 

Seventh  New  Hampshire 474,  607 

Seventh  Rhode  Island          ....      175,  198,  199,  308,  323,  445,  481 

Seventy-seventh  New  York 568 

Seymour,  Brigadier-General          ........         576 

Shaffer,  Mrs.  Oscar 664 

Shaler,  Brigadier-General 576 

Shay  (Shea),  Jeremiah 318 

Shedd,  Colonel 600 

Shedd,  John  G 145 

Shepard,  A.  Warren 12,  475 

Sheppard,  E.  0 236 

Sheridan,  General 522,  530,  542,  543,  652 

Sherman,  General 540,  582-585,  602,  603,  695 

Sigfried,  Lieutenant-Colonel 114,  199 

Simes,  Dr.  T.  M 746 

Simonds,  Lewis .    120,  147,  643,  644,  651,  737 

Simonds,  Wesley 125 

Simons,  Charles  J 14,  496,  497,  547,  731 

Simpson,  Henry  H '84 

Sixth  New  Hampshire          .  56,    92,  105,  109,  in,  114,  117,  118,  175,  191,  198 
!99>  274,  308,  319,  322,  417,  424,  434,  445,  481,  557,  558,  617,  647,  650 

Sixty-fifth  New  York 567 

Sixty-fourth  New  York 567,  574 

Sixty-sixth  New  York 597 

Skillings,  W.  L 236 

Sleeper,  Charles  F 475,  476 

Slyfield,  James 318 

Small,  Orrin  A.    .         .         .         . 14,    84 


168  GENERAL  INDEX. 

Smith,  Baxter  P. 737 

Smith,  General 266,  647 

Smith,  Hon.  Alvah 738 

Smith,  Luther       ...........         318 

Smith,  Mehitable  (Ward) 737 

Smith,  Moses 737 

Smith,  Orville 13,  222,  334,  366,  374,  738 

Smith,  Perley  A. 760 

Smyth,  Governor 558,  559,  560 

Spalding,  Mr 548 

Spaulding,  Sylvester 16 

Spencer,  Thomas 420 

Sprague,  S.  Henry 313,  756 

Staples,  Mark  G. 15,113 

Stearns,  Albert  B 529,  547 

Stearns,  George 16 

Stebbins,  Lieutenant 568 

Stephens,  A.  C 236 

Stevens,  Charles  C .  15 

Stevens,  Charles  S.       ..........         174 

Stevens,  Chester  C 12,    13,    14 

Stevens,  Colonel 223,  646 

Stevens,  George 649 

Stevens,  Josiah,  Jr 7,    10 

St.  Francis,  Edward    ........   147,  643,  644,  649 

Stewart,  J.  S 304 

Stewart,  Jonathan  P .         .  15 

Stivers,  Mr 648 

Stoddard,  Almond  A 113 

Stone,  A.  J.        13,  14,  125,  253,  263,  269,  373,  375,  376,  388,  389,  421,  464,  563 

Stoneman,  General 582,  587 

Stoughton,  Col.  H.  R 598 

Strait,  Colonel 578 

Streeter,  E.  H 113 

Steeeter,  Herbert  N 83,    84 

Sturgis,  General 48,    56,    80,    81,    86,    91,  114,  122 

134,  135,  170,  176,  180,  190,  191,  220,  228,  256,  578,  644,  647,  648,  713 
Sturtevant,  Major        ..........  35 

Sullivan,  Michael 113 

Sumner,  General 61,  191,  194,  215,  246,  646,  717 

Sumter,  Fort 2 

Surratt,  Mrs 610 

Swain,  R.  W 112 

Sweat,  Thomas  J.         .         . 638 

Swift,  Colonel 567 

Swift,  G.  H .         .         650,  651 

Sylvester,  George  P 15,564 

Symester,  Stephen  G 119 


GENERAL  INDEX.  169 

Symonds,  Charles  W. 439,  440 

Tabb,  Capt.  W.  A.  (Confederate) 574,  580,  581,  582 

Tappan,  Monroe 14 

Taft,  Albert  H 15,  113,  145,  629,  637,  638,  738-740 

Taft,  DeForest  R 740 

Taft,  Edward  N 738 

Taft,  M.  (Atherton) 740 

Tarbell,  Myal 84 

Tennant,  Matthew  P.   .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         112 

Tenth  New  Hampshire 166,  435 

Terry,  Lieutenant 322 

Third  New  Hampshire        .........     7,  474 

Thirteenth  Illinois 600 

Thirteenth  New  Hampshire 223,  435,  548,  646 

Thirteenth  Massachusetts .         .         610 

Thirty-first  Maine 445,  495,  534 

Thirty-fifth  Massachusetts   ...        48,    79,    81,    82,    85,    91,114,289 

Thirty-ninth  New  York 568 

Thirty-ninth  Virginia 567 

Thirty-second  Georgia  .........         584 

Thirty-second  Maine    .         .        367,  368,  375,  445,  495,  508,  533,  538,  548,  563 
Thirty-Sixth  Massachusetts  .......         445,  647 

Thomas,  Adjutant-General  . 752 

Thompson,  Charles  H.          .         .         .    • 112 

Thompson,  John  ..........          113 

Thompson,  William 616 

Thorpe,  Colonel 581,  582 

Thurston,  Charles 617 

Thurston,  Eugene 15 

Thurston,  Frank, 519,  520 

Tebbetts,  Stephen 235 

Tilford,  Lieutenant 568 

Tilton,  Charles  W 13 

Titus,  Col.  Ezra 741,  742 

Titus,  Dea.  Joseph 741 

Titus,  Electa  (Kneeland)      .  742 

Titus,  Herbert  B 10,  12,  38,  44,  49,  74 

75>    77>    81,  no,  116,  122,  208,  218,  222,  233,  263,  266,  269,  272,  275 
296,  297,  305,  313,  316,  317,  318,  327,  328,  334,  337,  342,  347,  348,  350 

352,  353.  355'  427,  536»  538,  547~549>  559.  56o>  563>  7™,  74Q-743.  752 

Titus,  Robert 741 

Tompkins,  Henry 16 

Towns,  Charles 84 

Tracy,  George  B.  15,  145,  227,  230,  397,  398,  633,  635,  743~745 

Tracy,  Henry  M. 15 

Triggs,  Benjamin 390 

Twelfth  New  Hampshire 228,  319 


iyo 


GENERAL  INDEX. 


Twelfth  Rhode  Island          ,         

.         198 

Twentieth  Massachusetts     

188 

Twenty-first  Massachusetts            

79>  "4 

Twenty-seventh  Indiana       

64 

Twombly,  Joseph  B.     

:5>  235 

Tubbs,  Dr.            

548 

Tucker,  Austin  H  

14,  478 

Turbayne,  Lieutenant  .         . 

597 

Underbill,  Charles  F  

.        746 

Underbill,  Charles  W  

745-746 

Underbill   Ellen  F 

746 

Underbill,  George  F  

.        746 

Underbill,  Moses          

745 

Underbill,  Rachel  (Lufkin)           

745 

Underbill,  Susan  (Kimball)          

746 

Underbill,  Susan  M  

746 

Underbill,  Thomas  B.           

746 

Underbill,  William  P.           ...         .         .         .         . 

.        746 

Upham,  Lorenzo  M  

J5>  IT9 

Vanderkeift,  Dr. 


Wadleigh,  Joseph  B.     . 
Wakefield,  George  L. 
Walker,  H.  W.    . 
Wallace,  Charles 
Walpole,  Captain 
Ward,  George  S. 
Ward,  Mary  J.     . 
Ward,  Joel 
Warren,  General 
Warren,  Osmon  B. 
Warren,  Rev.  James    . 
Warren,  Sylvester  B.    . 
Watts,  C.  H.        . 
Way,  William  E. 
Wayne,  Colonel   . 
Webber,  C.  C.      . 
Webster,  Albert  R.      . 
Webster,  Anna  (Wood) 
Webster,  Benjamin  P. 
Webster,  Edwin  H.      . 
Webster,  John  P. 
Webster,  William  A.    . 
Webster,  William  G.    . 
Webster,  Susan  F. 
Welch,  John  G.    . 
Wentworth,  C.  H. 
Wentworth,  James 


610 


112,349 

78,  421,  425,  475,  477,  499,  501,  746-747 
650 


.  568 
747 
747 
747 

$i9>  542 

748-749 

•         748 

84 

235 

15 

584,  591 

.         652 

757 

750 

750 


750-751 

12,  13,  14,  85,  1 10,  119,  351,  475>  749-750 

749 

749 

616 

235 

172 


GENERAL  INDEX.  171 

Wentworth,  Reuben 55 

Wesseles,  Brigadier-General 575,  576 

Wheeler,  Albert  R.      .        .        .  .         .         .  248,  250,  318,  385 

Wheeler,  Charles  W 235 

Whitcomb,  M.  H 652 

Whitcomb,  Nathan 235 

Whitfield,  Florence  (Morrison) 755 

Whitfield,  Smith  A.      ...         45,  no,  112,  113,  358,  434,  472,  751-755 

Whitman,  William       . 671 

Whittlesey,  Maj.  J.  H.          .         . 706 

Whipple,  Camp 29 

Whipple,  General 21,  22,  29,  33,  57 

Whipple,  John  P.          . 14 

Wild,  Colonel 114 

Wier,  N.  W 235 

Wilcox,  Ann  (Clark) .         .         759 

Wilcox,  Clark  H 754 

Wilcox,  Charles  W.     .         .         .         .    8,  15,  113,  130,  131,  144,  248,  262,  313 
327,  348,  349,  351,  354,  387,  472,  478,  479,  495,  562-613,  660,  755-759 

Wilcox,  Elon 755 

Wilcox,  Electa  (Brown)       .........         755 

Wilcox,  Erastus   ...........         755 

Wilcox,  Stephen  P 602 

Wiley,  Edgar  F.  ..........         250 

Wilkins,  J.  F 235 

Wilkins,  Leander  A 512 

Wilcox,  General  .         .         .         .        214,341,447,448,484,487,488,542,548 

Williams,  J.  W 235 

Williams,  Mr.       ...........         597 

Wilson,  Braman  I 15 

Wilson,  Mayor     ...........         610 

Winder,  General  .........          574,  602 

Winship,  D.  R 113 

Winslow,  Governor      ..........         660 

Wirtz,  Captain 620 

Wood,  Charles  A.  r6 

Wood,  Colonel 659 

Wood,  Marshall  P 16 

Woods,  Joseph  G 14 

Wright,  Emma  J.  (Davis) 687 

Wright,  G.  W 235 

Wright,  William  H.     .  687 

Wyman  J.  R 147,  643,  644,  649,  650 

Wymer,  A.  A.      .  ' 235 

Young,  Alvin  A. 760-761 

Zimmerman,  George  A 678 

Zouaves,  Hawkins 647 


M198290 


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